Steal Your Heart
by XxBittersweet AngelxX
Summary: She bounced up from her seat and crossed the room to answer the door, on the way she began to feel a little apprehensive about who it could be. Just as she opened the door, her fear washed away and her curiosity replaced it. No one was there. Without warning, there was a shout from down by her feet. "Hime! Come quick, I need your help!" Rated T for language. AU. Multi-chapter.
1. Chasing Phantoms in One's Dreams

**A/N –** Hi everyone! Okay so this is the first fanfic I've ever posted. I'm sorry if it's a little rough, but it's only the first chapter, so please bear with me. ;) Please feel free to leave reviews, thanks!

**Disclaimer** – I do not own Bleach those rights belong to the awesome Tite Kubo. I also do not own Horizons by Puscifer, that belongs to them. I, myself own nothing except this story.

* * *

Dust devil swept you away  
My recollections are all that's left of you  
Swirl and sway without me

_His piercing gaze locked onto hers as he reached for her. _

_She paused only for a moment before she extended her hand in return._

_Only this time his hand didn't turn to ash._

_He snatched her hand tightly in his and drew her toward him._

Orihime sat up breathless and covered in a cold sweat, how she'd woken up every night since she returned home. It was always the same puzzling dream, but she couldn't figure out what it meant.

It had been a little over a month since the war with Aizen ended and everything was back to normal, except for her. She couldn't go back to how things were before, not after what she had been through. As much as Orihime loved her friends, they would never understand. She couldn't let them know how guilty she felt about needing them to come to her rescue. She went there with the intentions of saving them, not the other way around.

Orihime laid in bed for a few more minutes and debated if she should even get up yet, she had another hour to go before her alarm clock was going to go off. Finally, she threw back the covers and decided to get started with her day by making some breakfast. After she made a quick trip to the bathroom, she begrudgingly made her way into the kitchen and started to pull ingredients out of the cabinets.

* * *

A little while later, she locked her front door and descended the steps that led to her apartment. Once she reached the sidewalk, she was met with her usual morning greeting.

"Hey Orihime!"

Orihime with her smile in place, turned and waved to her friend Tatsuki.

"Morning Tatsuki-chan."

Tatsuki was her best friend since childhood, there was no one Orihime trusted more in the world than her. She was tall, with an athletic build and a head of messy, short, black hair. Since it was December, they were both wearing their winter Karakura High uniform. There was no snow today, but it still managed to be rather cold outside, so Orihime had added a fluffy, pink scarf to her outfit.

"Orihime, are you feeling all right? You look a little tired, have you been sleeping enough?"

Orihime gave a nervous laugh and placed her right hand behind her head.

"Tatsuki-chan, I'm fine, I promise. I was just up late studying, after spending as much time as I did on make up work before, I don't want to fall behind again."

Tatsuki eyed her suspiciously for a moment before she decided to let it go. She let out a soft sigh as they started to walk in the direction of their school.

"That better be the reason you're not sleeping at night. You know, if you ever need to talk about anything I'm always here for you," Tatsuki said.

The problem was she couldn't talk to Tatsuki, as much as she wanted to, she hadn't told anyone the details of her stay in Hueco Mundo. Orihime couldn't tell them about her time there, with the Espada that had collected her, and kept her company. The cheerful girl began to slow her pace as she got lost in her thoughts. Tatsuki continued to walk until she realized they weren't side by side anymore, so she paused to turn around and gave Orihime a puzzled look.

"Orihime? Are you sure you're okay? You seem more spaced out than usual."

"Gomenasai Tatsuki-chan! I think I might have fried my brain a little last night from studying so hard. I won't study as much tonight and try to get to sleep at a more reasonable time," she said with a nervous giggle.

"Yeah, yeah, you need to snap out of it before you walk into a pole or something," Tatsuki grumbled in return.

"You're right," Orihime said. "I need to start being more aware of my surroundings, be on guard for enemies, like killer robots with laser beams!"

Orihime drew herself up to her full height, put a determined look on her face, and marched up to Tatsuki's side.

Tatsuki chuckled. "Orihime, sometimes you are so strange even to me."

At this remark the fiery, redhead stuck her tongue out at her dark haired friend.

"Come on Tatsuki, we're going to be being late if we don't get moving!"

* * *

Upon entering the classroom Orihime and Tatsuki greeted their friends Yasutora Sado_,_ Uryū Ishida.

"Morning Sado-kun, Ishida-kun!" Orihime exclaimed.

"Hey Chad, Ishida," Tatsuki stated as she drifted past them and headed to her desk.

Yasutora Sado or "Chad" to his friends, was a muscular teenager with chestnut hair and eyes, and a permanent tan due to his Mexican heritage. Uryū Ishida however, was not as tall as Chad but lean with neat, black hair and bespectacled, sapphire eyes.

Chad acknowledged them with a slight nod.

"Good morning Arisawa-san," Uryū said. "Inoue-san, don't forget that the handicrafts club meeting is canceled today."

Orihime giggled. "Thank you Ishida-kun, I would have wondered where everyone was."

"I kind of figured, that's why I reminded you," replied Uryū.

"Come on Orihime, the bells about to ring, we need to take our seats," Tatsuki said.

Orihime turned to Tatsuki and nodded before she headed to her seat. She placed her book bag on the floor and reached into it to pull out her notebooks and a pen. While she waited for her teacher to begin the day's lesson, Orihime's eyes wandered over to Ichigo Kurosaki's empty desk.

_Too bad ___Kurosaki-kun couldn't come back to school yet. I know he just woke up a couple of days ago, but it hasn't been the same without him here. I know Kuchiki-san's been staying with him like she usually does and she's probably standing over his bed, yelling at him to get up and-__

_"_Don't make a fuss about everything. It's annoying."__

She turned her gaze away from his desk to look out the window at the green trees in the distance and her thoughts wandered off to man with a pair of emerald eyes. She remembered how his eyes were the only color to comfort her in a world of nothing but black and white. Orihime blinked, shook her head to clear her thoughts, and turned her attention back to her teacher.

* * *

Orihime walked home alone after another quiet day at school. It was now mid afternoon and it had started to get a little chillier out, so she headed home at a quicker pace than usual. She made sure her mind didn't wander too much by making a point to keep her attention focused on her surroundings. She looked into store windows as she passed by, or glanced at the strangers that flowed around her.

_After all that happened, thank goodness that things worked out for the better, I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we had lost._

At this thought, she frowned and let out a soft sigh,"come on Orihime," she said. "Time to cheer up and start moving forward."

She then lifted both of her hands and used her pointer fingers to force her cheeks up to form a smile. At that moment an elderly woman passed by and gave a strange look. Orihime blushed at the old woman, quite embarrassed that she was caught in her peculiar actions, and hastily continued on her way home. It seemed like she only walked for a few more minutes before the stairs that led up to her apartment came into her view.

The redhead unlocked her front door, stepped in and removed her shoes. She tossed her bag on the couch, strolled over to the shrine on a shelf by the kitchen, and knelt in front of it.

"Good afternoon Onii-chan," Orihime said as she knelt in front of the shrine. "My day wasn't very eventful, except at lunch time when Chizuru tried to hug me a little too long and of course Tatsuki-chan knocked some sense into her." She giggled as she thought about the incident and offered a quick prayer before she lifted herself off the floor.

"It's way too early for dinner, so I guess I should start on my homework," she said to herself.

Orihime turned away from the shrine and headed off to retrieve her bag. The redhead grabbed it, walked over to the table to remove the necessary materials and began to work on her homework for the evening.

A few hours later, a loud growl from her stomach startled her from her homework. With a deep blush on her face, she sprung up from her seat on the floor and bolted toward the kitchen.

"Oh my gosh! I completely forgot to make dinner!" she cried out to herself.

As soon as Orihime hit the kitchen, she started to tear through her cabinets like a tornado, she yanked open drawers, and checked her fridge three times. She discovered that she had nothing to eat but bean paste and a loaf of bread.

_Guess that's what I get for not stopping at the store on the way home, I should have at least grabbed a snack or something._

Orihime grabbed her lackluster dinner, drifted back to her seat at the table and turned on the tv. She flipped through the channels for a few seconds before finding something interesting to watch. As she began to eat, there was a sudden knock at her door.

Hmm, Tatsuki didn't say she'd be stopping by. I wonder who it could be?

Orihime bounced up from her seat and crossed the room towards her front door, on the way she began to feel a little apprehensive about who it would be. Just as she opened the door, her fear washed away and her curiosity replaced it. No one was there. Without warning, there was a shout from down by her feet.

"Hime! Come quick, I need your help!"

Orihime gawked at the small child with sea green hair looking up at her. Her large, storm colored eyes were filled with tears and she had an indisputable, broken Arrancar mask on her head.

"Oh my gosh! Nel-chan, what in the world are you doing here? How did you even get here?" she asked.

"Nel opened a garganta in the park. I'll tell you everything later, we have to hurry and help Grimmjow. C'mon, we don't have time!" Nel shouted.

"Grimmjow? What do you mean-"

"Later! We gotta go now!" the child wailed as she flew down the steps and took off in the direction of the park.

Orihime launched herself down the steps two at a time to catch up to the quick girl. As she hit the ground, she bolted as fast as she could toward the park. All the while, her thoughts were in complete disarray with panic about what kind of situation she was getting involved in.


	2. Where the Tides Start to Turn

**A/N –** Okay guys, here's the next chapter. I want to take a moment to thank everyone that read chapter one, especially everyone that reviewed, you rock!

**Disclaimer – **Same as before, I don't own Bleach.

* * *

Finally, the young girls arrived at the park and Nel brought Orihime over to a little bridge that she had left Grimmjow under. Since normal people couldn't see him, they didn't need to worry that he would be discovered. As her eyes fell on the unconscious man, she first noticed all the dried blood that stained his uniform, followed by his cerulean colored hair that looked washed out in the moonlight.

"We gotta hurry and move him to your place," Nel stated.

"Wait, my place?" Orihime questioned.

"Yeah, cause you gotta heal him and nobody will suspect us being there!" Nel cried out.

"Alright, alright! I'll grab his arms, you grab his legs. Let's hurry up before somebody senses that you opened a garganta and comes to investigate," she said to the smaller girl.

The young Arrancar nodded her head in understanding and reached down to grab the man's feet. As the ginger haired woman grabbed him tightly by the wrists, they lifted the man and he let out a soft groan.

The two girls awkwardly carried the man back toward her apartment. By this time, it was dark enough out that only a few people were roaming around and none of them even paused to observe Orihime's strange behavior.

_Thank God normal people can't see hollows, otherwise this would be tough to explain,_ Orihime thought as they walked as quickly as possible, and she tried not to appear as if she was carrying a passed out man.

* * *

Once they carried Grimmjow up the stairs to Orihime's apartment, the girls placed him gently on the floor, and then collapsed onto the couch to catch their breath. Orihime rested there for a moment before she slid off the couch and onto the floor next to the unconscious man. She cast her eyes downward and proceeded to call on her faeries to heal him.

"Sōten kisshun," Orihime whispered, "I reject."

The golden light of her shun shun rikka engulfed Grimmjow's body and began to heal his wounds. She turned her eyes from his still form to meet with Nel's and waited for answers.

Nel sighed. "After everyone left Nel found Grimmjow barely still alive, so Nel drooled on the worst of his wounds to heal him, but Nel's powers aren't that strong."

"Wait, you drooled on him?" Orihime asked.

"Yeah, but it wasn't enough, so Nel figured if she brought him to Hime, you'd heal him," she declared with a smile on her face.

"All the Espada are dead you know," Orihime stated. "Aizen's also locked away in Soul Society for a long time."

"All of them, even Lord Ulquiorra?"

Orihime stared down at her hands in her lap and took a deep breath before answering the child's question.

"Kurosaki-kun killed Ulquiorra," she murmured.

"What kind of bullshit is that!" a sudden, brash voice interrupted.

Orihime's jumped and let out a startled gasp at the sound of the man's voice. Nel bounced off her seat on the couch to sit along the man's other side.

"Grimmjow, you're awake! Are you-"

"Whatever, that's not important woman, how the fuck did that punk Kurosaki kill Ulquiorra?" Grimmjow demanded.

"Well you see, Kurosaki-kun turned into a hollow and he wounded Ulquiorra to the point where he couldn't regenerate," she responded as her voice gave away only the slightest bit of emotion.

"Tch, I don't believe it. So, why didn't you just heal him?" he asked as he eased himself into a sitting position. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as the light from her shield disappeared.

"I couldn't, he turned to ash," she muttered in defense.

"You gotta be fucking kidding!" he shouted. "You healed my arm after it'd been completely destroyed and there wasn't shit left of it, you could've brought him back from that!"

"Grimmjow, don't speak to Hime that way, she just healed you!" Nel snapped.

_Why hadn't she tried to bring him back? _

Orihime realized that Grimmjow was right, it should have been possible to bring him back. As a result, she broke out of her thoughts, bolted upright off the floor, and rushed to her bedroom.

"Oi woman, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Grimmjow shouted from the living room.

With this in mind, she ignored him and knelt down to reach under her bed, for a box she thought she would never need to open again. In fact, she didn't know why she had kept the dress from her time as a prisoner, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to throw it away. Orihime opened it and removed the torn remnants to check them. On the ends of the tattered sleeves she found what she was looking for, his ashes.

"You have to bring him back," Grimmjow said as his eyes locked on the sleeves in her hands.

She lifted her head to look at Grimmjow as he leaned against the doorway to her bedroom with Nel beside him, clinging to his leg.

"You can do it Hime!" Nel cheered as she squeezed Grimmjow's leg tighter in excitement.

"Let go of me you little brat!" he shouted, "or I'll kick you across the fucking room."

"Enough!" Orihime interrupted. As a result, both of them stopped mid motion, Grimmjow had his leg up in the air while Nel held on to it for dear life. He slowly put his leg down so she could let go of it and both of them stared intently at Orihime.

"I..." She swallowed. "I'll try."

* * *

Orihime laid the remains of the dress sleeves neatly on the floor in front of her as Grimmjow and Nel walked past her, over to her bed, and sat on the edge to watch.

"Sōten kisshun," Orihime's voice wavered. "I reject."

Immediately, a golden bubble appeared around the sleeves and for a few minutes nothing happened. She concentrated harder on her task and bit by bit, she noticed that the ash was beginning to slowly lift off the garments. All of a sudden, it began to mingle and swirl up in the air before coming down to form something. Meanwhile, Orihime was reaching her limit, but she couldn't stop now, not when he was almost complete.

Distantly, she heard the shocked gasps from her small audience as she focused all of her attention on the dark figure appearing in front if her eyes. Lying in front of her was something that appeared as if it had come from a nightmare, it was Ulquiorra there was no doubt about that, and he was in his Segunda Etapa form. At this point, she slumped forward from exhaustion, and placed her hands on the ground to brace herself, which brought her closer to him.

"Ulquiorra-kun?" Orihime breathed, her eyes full of tears.

Abruptly, the yellow glow surrounding him cracked and shattered as his eyes flew open. His gaze moved to lock with hers and she let out an audible gasp.

"Woman, I told you not refer to me as you would a human," he replied roughly.

Orihime burst into tears, feeling overwhelmed with relief as Ulquiorra eased himself up to stand on his feet. He glanced down at his reformed body and shook out his wings before setting his eyes back down on Orihime.

Clearing his throat loudly Grimmjow interrupted the pair in the middle of the room."I hate to break up your touching reunion and all, but can I get a shower and I don't know, maybe some clothes not covered in blood?"

At Grimmjow's words, a crimson flush spread across Orihime's face, she let out a nervous laugh and turned to the man. "Gomenasai! Oh, look at the time! I gotta be up for school in the morning. Let me grab some clothes, that way everyone can shower, and get to bed."

Orihime pushed herself off the floor and headed to the linen closet to grab some of her brother's old clothes. Grimmjow got off the bed, followed her out of the room, and stopped in the doorway to the bathroom.

"I'm going to jump in the shower, I can't wait all night for you to get your shit together, just put my clothes on the counter when you find them," he told her in an irritated voice as he closed the bathroom door.

_I'm glad I kept some of Sora's clothes, I guess you never know when something might come in handy,_ she thought as she began to rummage through the closet. She pulled out two pairs of clothes for the men to wear and turned back to the bathroom.

As soon as Orihime approached the bathroom, she lifted her hand to knock, and Ulquiorra appeared beside her holding out his clawed palm.

"Give the clothing to me," he stated.

"Oh, you want your clothes? Sure, I was just gonna put Grimmjow's in the bathroom quick."

"You would go in there knowing that he's undressed?"

With that question, her mouth formed a circle and pink colored her cheeks as she realized what he meant, she then separated the clothes and handed them to him.

"These are yours, and these are his," she replied quickly, as she shoved the clothing into his hands, and hurried past him back to her bedroom.

As he watched her walk away, Grimmjow opened the bathroom door behind him and Ulquiorra tossed the clothes into the other man's face without even looking back.

"Hey! What the fuck man?" Grimmjow questioned.

"If you are finished, there are others waiting." Ulquiorra responded coldly.

"Yeah, whatever." The blue haired man scowled at him, slammed the door in his face, and opened it a moment later fully dressed. He stepped out of the bathroom wearing a plain white t-shirt and blue, plaid pajama bottoms.

"It's all yours, Batman," he snapped as he walked by him toward Orihime's room.

* * *

When Grimmjow reached the doorway to Orihime's room, he crossed his arms, and leaned against it while he watched the two girls. He noticed that there was a pile of shirts on the floor, and the smaller girl was jumping on the bed with her back to him, while Orihime dug through her closet.

"Ah, ha!" Orihime burst out as she found a little pink t-shirt, "this just might fit."

"Yay!" Nel shouted as she jumped up and down on the bed with more enthusiasm.

Orihime handed her the shirt and observed Grimmjow standing in the doorway. She covered her mouth quickly to suppress a giggle as she saw him for the first time in normal clothes, aside from the piece of his mask on the right side of his face, he could have passed for a human.

"Whenever you're done, I'd like to know where I can crash, I'm exhausted."

Nel paused in her jumping long enough to speak, "Nel wants to sleep with Hime! Please?"

"Okay Nel can sleep with me, one of you gets the spare futon, and the other gets the couch. I'm sorry I have nothing better to offer you guys, I'm not used to having so much company." Orihime told them.

"It's fine woman," Ulquiorra cut in as he appeared beside Grimmjow, he had returned to his normal form. In that moment, he looked like an average teenage boy, aside from his hollow helmet and tear stained cheeks, as he stood there in a light gray t-shirt and black sweat pants.

"I call the futon," the man with the cerulean hair declared as he walked off to the living room. Ulquiorra with his hands in his pockets, trailed behind him.

"Come on Nel-chan, you need to hop in the shower quick, it's already past your bedtime," the redhead said as she reached out and took the girl's hand.

"How do you know it's past my bedtime?" she asked as she jumped off the bed.

Orihime smiled down at her as they began to drift toward the bathroom, "children need extra sleep, so they go to bed earlier than adults."

"Nel isn't a child," she pouted, "Nel only looks like a child."

"Oh, I guess you're right," Orihime replied as she let go of her hand when they reached the bathroom. Meanwhile, Orihime went back to the closet to pull out the futon and a pillow for Grimmjow.

* * *

A little while later, Orihime stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a pair of pink, striped pajama pants and a matching long sleeved shirt. From the doorway, she noted that Nel was already passed out in her bed, Grimmjow was snoring quietly on the futon and the other Espada was on her couch, staring out the window at something.

_I bet he's staring at the moon,_ she thought as she tiptoed across the room to stand alongside the couch.

"What're you looking at?" Orihime whispered, so as not to wake the other man.

"The moon," he answered, "it looks different here."

She smiled softly at him, "yes it does, goodnight Ulquiorra."

"Go to sleep, woman," he responded a moment later as he watched her retreat to her bedroom.

Throughout the night he stared at the moon, and reflected on what had happened, occasionally he would glance at her sleeping form through the open door to her room.

* * *

**A/N –** Okay, so quick note, I know some of you are wondering why Grimmjow made Orihime bring Ulquiorra back. I did that because Grimmjow was always trying to fight him to prove that he was better, but I believe that since they're such opposites they could've been good friends. Plus, they're also my three favorite Espada, so I had to bring all of them back and this is gonna be Ulquihime fic, eventually, so of course I had to bring him back. ;)


	3. When Ripples Become Waves

**A/N – **So, I've decided I'm gonna try to update this twice a week. I'm not making any promises though, just in case I fall behind, but as of right now that's the way things are looking. Again, I wanna thank everyone that read and reviewed the previous chapters, you people are awesome! :)

**Disclaimer – **Nothing's changed since chapter one, I still don't own Bleach.

* * *

Orihime woke up the following morning to the sound of her alarm going off and a warm body pressed to her chest. Her eyes flew open and she glanced down at the little girl that was sound asleep, drooling on her.

She let out a sigh of relief. _It's just Nel-chan_.

From the living room came a raspy shout, "what the fuck is that sound?"

"Gomenasai," Orihime replied. "It's my alarm clock, it means I gotta get ready for school."

She rolled over to turn off the alarm and tried not to wake the child, but did anyway, one of Nel's eyes popped open. The pint-sized Arrancar inspected her for a moment before she rolled over and burrowed back into the blankets. Orihime smiled at this, then slid out from under the blankets, and made her way to the living room to check on her other "guests."

Grimmjow was sprawled out on the futon, he glared up at her with an irritated, yet groggy look, and Ulquiorra sat in the same spot on the couch where she left him, still staring out the window.

"I'm sorry guys, you don't need to get up yet if you're still tired. Usually, I'm up before my alarm goes off-" She paused as she realized something.

_I'm always up before the alarm goes off, that means I slept the entire night without having that dream... _

Ulquiorra interrupted her thoughts, "Woman, do you have the time to be standing here explaining yourself?"

Orihime snapped out her thoughts and her cheeks flared red. "Oh my gosh you're right! I've gotta get a move on or I'm gonna be late!"

With that, she turned and ran off to her bedroom to retrieve her uniform. She snatched it up and took off for the bathroom, slammed the door, and quickly got undressed before jumping into the shower.

When she finished in the bathroom, she came out and went into the kitchen to grab something quick for breakfast. As soon as she opened the fridge, she remembered there wasn't anything to eat except bread and bean paste. Orihime grabbed a couple of pieces of bread, smothered them with paste, effectively making a sandwich, and made her way to the front door.

"I gotta leave for school now, I won't be back till later this afternoon. There's nothing to eat but bread and bean paste right now, but if you're hungry later feel free to eat it. I'll stop at the store on the way home and pick up something to eat." She told them as she put on her shoes, "oh, and don't leave the apartment or open the door to anyone, when I come home later we'll figure all this out."

"Do we look that stupid?" Grimmjow grumbled.

"No, but the fewer people that know you're here, the better off we'll be, bye." The redhead answered before she walked out the door.

"She seems stranger than I remember," the cerulean haired man grumbled to his companion seated on the couch.

"She's always been strange," the other man replied as his eyes never left the window.

* * *

She walked down the steps and almost ran into Tatsuki as she headed up them to her apartment.

"Morning Tatsuki-chan, sorry I'm late!" Orihime greeted the other girl.

"It's alright Orihime, you appear a little better today. Did you finally get a decent night's sleep?"

"Yup, I got all my homework done as soon as I came home and went to bed super early." She replied as they started their daily walk to school. She glanced up at the window of her apartment and paused for a second as her eyes came in contact with Ulquiorra's.

"You're still just as spaced out as usual, though," Tatsuki stated as she turned to catch a glimpse of what had caught the ginger haired girl's attention.

Orihime's quickly averted her gaze, walked up to the dark haired girl, grabbed her by the arm and nearly dragged her in the direction of their school.

"Orihime, what-"

"I'm just excited to get to school and see everyone Tatsuki-chan, let's hurry up and get this day started." Orihime quickly interrupted.

"You really are weird, Orihime."

* * *

A little while later, the two girls entered the classroom and were pleasantly surprised at who was already there, Ichigo sat at his desk while Rukia stood beside him. He had a head of unruly, orange hair and chocolate eyes. On the other hand, Rukia had short, black hair with navy eyes and stood almost as tall as Ichigo sitting down.

Orihime's face broke out into an enormous smile. "Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, you're back!"

"Oi, Inoue, Tatsuki." Ichigo replied.

"Hello Inoue, Arisawa-san, we would have come back sooner if Ichigo wasn't such a baby." Rukia replied as she glared at Ichigo.

"I was in a coma! I couldn't just wake up and stroll off to school, or something!" he shouted back.

"Kurosaki, you haven't even been back to school for fifteen minutes and you're already making a racket." Uryū interjected as he and Chad entered the room.

"Ishida, Chad-"

"Iiiiccchhhhiiiigggooo!" Came a cry as Keigo flew into the room. Mizuiro grabbed him by the back of the shirt in mid leap to stop him from tackling Ichigo, all the while texting with his other hand.

"Mizuiro, let me go I need to hug Ichigo, it's been so long since we've seen him," Keigo cried out.

"Asano-san, calm down Ichigo doesn't want you to hug on him anyway," Mizuiro replied just as the bell rang.

"All right, you delinquents it's time for to take your seats, so we can begin today's lesson," Ms. Ochi announced as she entered the room. "Oh, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, welcome back."

The students quickly took their seats as Ms. Ochi began to call attendance. Orihime turned to stare out the window, and wished the day was ending instead of just beginning.

* * *

When lunch time came, the group made their way up to the roof where they usually ate, they sat together and chatted about various subjects, while they took out their lunches, and began to eat. Orihime was talking to Rukia when Tatsuki noticed that she wasn't eating one of her usual, weird concoctions.

"Orihime, did you forget to bring your lunch again?" Tatsuki asked the girl.

The girl in question, coughed out a nervous laugh. "As a matter of fact, I forgot to stop by the store on the way home yesterday, and there's nothing to eat in my house. I'm okay though, don't worry, I'm not even hungry."

Right at that moment her stomach let out a roaring growl and Orihime face faulted.

"Here Inoue, Yuzu always makes me too much anyway you can have some of my lunch," Ichigo told her.

Orihime blushed, "Thank you Kurosaki-kun, I'll be alright."

"Orihime, just eat the damn food before lunch ends," Tatsuki interrupted.

"A-alright," Orihime stood up to sit by Ichigo, that way they could share his lunch. The entire time they ate, she stared off into the distance as she wondered what the Espada could be doing all day.

* * *

The rest of the day, Orihime stared out the window as she waited for it to be over. She chewed on her pencil, or tapped her foot impatiently as she wished the clock would move just a little faster.

Finally, when the bell rang, she shot out of her seat and bolted for the door, before she made it Ichigo called out to her.

"Inoue, since Tatsuki's staying after for the karate club, you want us to walk home with you?" the orange haired boy asked, as his eyes locked on Orihime's from his place beside Rukia.

"No thanks Kurosaki-kun!" She called out over her shoulder as she took off out the door and made her way home.

_There he goes worrying about me again. Oh, and I need to stop at the store and grab something to eat!_

As Orihime crossed the school yard toward the exit she thought about what dishes she could throw together, and the ingredients necessary for them, she didn't even notice the two figures watching her from the classroom window.

* * *

The auburn haired girl unlocked her front door as she balanced a couple of stuffed grocery bags and her school bag in her hands. She pushed it open to find a rather unique sight, all the Espada were seated on her couch. Grimmjow and Nel were both laughing at something amusing on the tv, while Ulquiorra sat quietly reading a book. He glanced up from his book as she entered the apartment, and watched her as she slid off her shoes before she headed over to the kitchen.

Nel noticed she was home and with a shout she hopped off the couch and ran over to her. "Hime!"

"Hi guys, so I bought a bunch of food, I didn't know what you guys eat, so I got a variety of different stuff." Orihime announced as she began to unload the bags onto the counter.

"Souls," Grimmjow replied.

Orihime paused as she reached into a bag, "Excuse me?"

Grimmjow gave her a beastly grin. "We eat human souls, not human food."

At his statement her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open.

"S-souls? You didn't eat any today did you?" She asked nervously.

"Of course not! You believe we're that stupid, don't you?" Grimmjow rolled his eyes and went back to watching tv.

"Don't worry Hime, we behaved, Grimmjow figured out how to work the tv, and we watched it all day while Ulquiorra just sat there reading your books." Nel told the other girl.

"Sounds like you guys had an uneventful day," she dryly replied as she continued to put away the groceries.

"What did Hime do all day at school?" the little Arrancar asked her.

"Umm, I learned stuff, since that's what you do at school. Oh, and cause I didn't have anything for lunch, Kurosaki-kun was considerate enough to share his." Orihime told her with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Itsygo! Hime saw Itsygo!" Nel cried out.

"Where'd you see that punk Kurosaki?" Grimmjow shouted as he lifted himself off the couch and came toward her.

"Obviously, if you'd been listening to her you'd know she saw him at school, trash." Ulquiorra said from the couch.

"Shut the fuck up Cuatro, I wasn't asking you," Grimmjow snapped back.

"Kurosaki-kun isn't a punk," the redhead replied.

"Tch, just wait till I get a hold of him, I'm gonna kick his sorry ass!"

"Itsygo's Nel and Hime's friend, you shouldn't say stuff like that," Nel cried with tears in her eyes.

"It's that bastard's fault my arm got cut off!" he shouted at her.

"No, your arm was cut off as a result of you not following orders," Ulquiorra interjected.

"Nobody asked-"

There was a sudden knock at the door and all of them froze. Orihime looked at the three of them and waved her hands frantically toward her room.

"Quick, go into my room, close the door, and stay quiet," she whispered loud enough for them to hear.

Nel ran off in the direction of Orihime's room, followed by Grimmjow. Finally, Ulquiorra eased himself up off of the couch and regarded her for a moment.

"Woman, don't put yourself at risk for us," he stated before he trailed after the others and closed the door.

* * *

For the second time in two days, Orihime felt nervous about answering her front door as she walked over to it.

She opened the door to see Ichigo with his hand raised, about to knock for a second time, and Rukia standing to one side of him.

"Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, what're you two doing here?" Orihime asked them.

"Oi Inoue, we just stopped by to check if everything was alright, you seemed to be in a hurry this afternoon and we were worried," the orange haired boy answered.

Rukia stepped forward, "Inoue, can we come inside for just a minute?"

Orihime glanced around nervously, "Umm, my house's kinda a mess right now."

"That's alright, don't worry about it," Ichigo said as he walked through her front door and Rukia followed behind him.

"You call this a mess? Sheesh, I hate to see how it looks when it's clean," Ichigo said as he glanced around her living room.

Suddenly, her bedroom door burst open as Nel rushed out with her arms extended and tears in her eyes.

"Iiitttsssyyygggooo!" she wailed as she launched herself at him.

Grimmjow appeared behind her. "Come back here you little shit!"

"This is why I don't associate with trash," Ulquiorra grumbled from the bedroom doorway.

"Nel! What the-" Ichigo shouted in surprise as he caught the girl in midair.

"Itsygo, Nel missed you so much!" The little girl cried as she embraced him tightly.

"I told you I sensed a garganta being opened last night," Rukia complained to the other man.

Ichigo, with Nel in his arms, turned to Orihime, "Inoue, what the hell's going on?"

Orihime diverted her eyes away from his as she turned bright red and she tried to decide how to explain what happened.

"Nel came to find Hime last night and brought Grimmjow with her, cause he was still terribly wounded, and Grimmjow told her to bring Ulquiorra back, so she did." Nel stated with an enthusiastic smile on her face.

"I did not!" Grimmjow yelled at her.

Nel stuck her tongue out and used her right index finger to pull down underneath her eye. "Did too!" She shouted back.

"Alright, enough," Ichigo stated firmly before the two could continue their argument. "So, now what are we gonna do?"

"Umm, we haven't discussed that yet," Orihime murmured.

Rukia stepped in front of Ichigo, facing the rest of the group, "We have to tell Soul Society."

"No!" Orihime, Grimmjow, and Nel all yelled simultaneously.

Ichigo sighed in defeat. "Okay, let's visit Urahara-san and find out what he suggests we do."

Orihime clapped her hands together and grinned. "That's an excellent idea Kurosaki-kun, Urahara-san will understand exactly how to handle this!"

"Alright, let's head over to the shop before it gets any later," Ichigo declared to the group, as Nel climbed up onto his shoulders, and he led all of them out the front door.


	4. In Search of Some Answers

**Disclaimer – **I don't own Bleach.

* * *

Meanwhile, the group filed down the steps of Orihime's apartment and began the short trip to Urahara's shop. Ichigo and Rukia were in the front, with Nel on his shoulders, followed by Grimmjow, Orihime, and Ulquiorra.

"Itsygo, how come you're not dressed like a Shinigami?" Nel asked from above him, as she pointed down to emphasize the fact that he was wearing his school uniform.

"Cause I'm only a substitute Shinigami," Ichigo answered the girl.

"That's cause you suck," Grimmjow growled at him.

"Nobody asked you, Hollow!" Ichigo roared at the other man.

As the two men continued to bicker back and forth, Orihime slowed her pace a bit to walk alongside the other, quieter Espada. In spite of all the commotion going on in front of them, Ulquiorra didn't seem the least bit affected by it, as he walked with his hands in his pockets. Orihime glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye from time to time, before she decided to speak to him.

"Are you worried? You don't need to be, Urahara-san's a great person. Also, he's smart and understanding-"

"I'm not worried, woman," Ulquiorra interrupted her.

Orihime gave a nervous giggle. "Of course you're not." Suddenly, her entire demeanor changed as she put on a creepy face, held her hands up, and curled her fingers similar to claws. "Cause you're the Cuatro Espada," she said in an overly dramatic, scary voice.

The stoic man gave her a blank stare in return.

She rolled her eyes at him, "C'mon, you have no sense of humor."

"I have no need for human emotions," he replied.

"You should, maybe you'd have fun," she mumbled.

Despite the fact that he heard her, he continued to walk in silence, every once in a while stealing a glance at her.

* * *

The boisterous group arrived at the shop to find Ururu and Jinta out in front of the shop, as usual Ururu was sweeping the walkway, while the latter was playing baseball. Ururu was a quiet, dark haired, young girl, whereas Jinta was a loud, fiery redheaded, young boy.

"Konnichiwa," Ururu greeted them with a slight bow.

"What do you guys want?" Jinta questioned.

"We need to talk to Urahara-san, it's important," Kurosaki answered the boy.

Jinta scowled at him. "It's always important, and who're these guys?" He asked as he pointed to the Espada.

At that moment the front door slid open behind the two children, and Urahara stood in it holding a fan over the lower half his face. He was a tall man, with blonde hair under a striped green and white hat, that hid his eyes and he wore a black haori with wooden sandals.

"Kurosaki-san, I assume you came here with an excellent reason for bringing three Espada with you," Urahara greeted. "Why don't all of you come inside, it's rather cold out here."

* * *

With that, the group headed into the shop to find out what advice the shopkeeper would be able to offer them. They gathered around a table in the living room and sat on the floor, once they were situated, Orihime retold the events to the shopkeeper.

"That's quite an interesting story, Inoue-san," Urahara replied when she finished. "Now what do you plan to do with them?"

"They could return to Hueco Mundo and we could pretend that this never happened," Ichigo said with a hostile expression on his face, as he directed his gaze toward Grimmjow and Ulquiorra.

"Itsygo would send Nel away!" The smallest Espada cried as tears formed in her eyes.

"No, Nel, that's not what I meant!" Ichigo argued as he waved his arms for emphasis.

There was a sudden loud bang as Grimmjow slammed his palm on the table. "So, she can stay, but we have to leave?" he yelled.

"We can't go back now, Los Noches is ruined, and we'd go back to wandering the desert. Itsygo, you would force poor Nel to roam the desert forever?" Nel pleaded with Ichigo.

"Alright, what do you suggest?" The orange haired boy asked sarcastically.

"Nel wants to stay with Itsygo!" She whined in return as she threw her arms around his neck.

"What? You can't stay with me. How would I explain that to my dad?" Ichigo asked her.

At that moment, Urahara pulled out his fan and waved it in front of a sly grin that crossed his face. "As a matter of fact Kurosaki-san, Nel-chan could stay with Inoue-san and the boys could stay here with me, on just a couple of conditions of course," Urahara said in a playful tone.

Grimmjow turned to the blonde haired scientist. "What makes you think we'd want to stay with you? And what's with the conditions? If we can't kill anybody, I can't promise that," he said as he glared daggers at Ichigo across the table.

Before Ichigo could argue, Urahara held out his fan between the two men, so he could speak. "Of course I'd need to create all of you special gigais, that way Soul Society can't detect you, and in return for giving you these gigais, you would let me acquire readings on them and such."

"That's it? And you'd let us stay with you?" Grimmjow asked suspiciously.

"Also, you'd also be expected to lend the children a hand around the shop with chores and such," Urahara answered with his usual grin.

"We're Espada not maids! We were the top ranked in Aizen's army and you want us to clean your house?" Grimmjow shouted in anger.

"Ah, except you would attain the rare chance at a human life, something you haven't had since before you died. You would still possess all your powers, of course I would just need to put a limiter on them, we can't have you accidentally destroying the town or anything," the shopkeeper informed them.

"Tch, how do you guys feel about this?" Grimmjow asked the other two Espada.

"Nel wants to be with Itsygo, but Nel's okay with staying with Hime instead," the child said from her place in Ichigo's lap.

The blue haired man turned to the other Espada sitting next to him. "What about you, Cuatro? You have an opinion in all of this?"

"I do not have a problem with it," Ulquiorra stated unemotionally, as he noticed Orihime relax alongside him out of the corner of his eye.

"That solves that, there's just one last problem to be taken care of before I start working on your gigais," Urahara said in a singsong voice.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ichigo interjected. "What do you mean, 'that solves that?' We can't just let them stay here, they're dangerous! Besides, what if Soul Society finds out?"

Urahara appeared thoughtful for a moment as he tapped his fan against his cheek. "Hmm, since Aizen is gone, they have no further reason to fight, meaning they shouldn't be a danger to you anymore. Also, if they did feel it necessary to kill you, they would have done it by now."

Instantly, his face turned serious as he lowered his eyes to meet Rukia's, "and if anyone were to tell Soul Society, they would seem just as guilty for not immediately capturing them."

"Alright, I get it. What's the other problem that needs to be dealt with?" The female Shinigami replied as she rolled her eyes at the other man.

With this statement the scientist's demeanor changed back to his normal, comical self. "For this task I need Inoue-san's assistance," he replied as he smiled across the table at the redheaded girl.

"Me?" Orihime asked him in a startled voice, "what would I be able to do?"

"I can't create a gigai for a child, it's not impossible, but it would make it difficult for Nel-chan to do anything without being with an adult at all times. With this in mind Inoue-san, I need you to restore her to her original form," he answered.

"How can I do that?" She questioned as she glanced at the girl they were discussing.

Urahara thought about it for a moment before answering, "you could try to repair her broken mask, you did bring back Ulquiorra-san from just ash, so it should be possible."

Orihime nodded at the man, "alright, I'll give it my best shot."

Thus, Nel jumped out of Ichigo's lap, ran across the table and hopped off of it to plop down between Rukia, and Orihime.

"Alright Nel-chan, just relax," the redhead told the other girl. "Sōten kisshun, I reject."

* * *

As soon as she said the words, her two faeries came out and a yellow glow encircled the little Arrancar. The rest of the group sat in silence as they watched the two girls, expecting something to happen, but several minutes passed, and still nothing.

"Inoue-san, just focus on her broken mask." Urahara encouraged the girl from his seat on the opposite side of the table.

"Hai, Urahara-san," the ginger haired girl replied as she concentrated harder and fixated all of her attention on Nel's mask. Finally, Nel squinted her eyes slightly in pain and reached up to hold her head.

"Nel's mask is starting to feel strange, Hime" she said with an uncomfortable look on her face.

Orihime appeared pale as she gave the child a weak smile for comfort and her breathing became more labored.

_Ayame, Shun'ō, please hurry, I can't hold out much longer._

Suddenly, there was a strange sound and a puff of smoke enveloped Nel. Just as the smoke started to dissipate, Orihime reached her limit and feinted. Instinctively, Ulquiorra reached out and caught her before she could hit the ground.

Now standing in front of them was the adult, former third Espada, she was taller, with the same sea green, wavy hair, but it was now much longer. Consequently, her once broken mask was now complete and the scar between her eyes was gone.

She stood there for a moment, as she collected her thoughts before she turned to Ichigo and her face broke out into a giant grin.

"Ichigo!" She yelled as she vaulted over the table and into Ichigo to give him a deadly bear hug. "Now we're the same size!"

"Nel please, I can't-" was he managed to choke out before he caught a glimpse over Nel's shoulder.

At that moment, Ichigo noticed that Orihime was passed out in Ulquiorra's arms. Instantly, he stood up and pointed at the other man, as he knocked Nel off of him and onto the floor.

"Take your hands off Inoue, you bastard! Don't touch her!" The orange haired Shinigami clamored, as he rounded the table toward the other man.

"Would you prefer if I had let her hit the ground?" Ulquiorra replied, just as Orihime opened her eyes, to the sight of Ichigo standing above her, glaring down at the man behind her.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime murmured as she sat up, not noticing as Ulquiorra's hands left her shoulders. "What's wrong? Is Nel-chan okay?" She asked as she noticed the irate expression on Ichigo's face.

"No, my ass hurts! Ichigo's so mean!" she heard Nel wail from the floor on the opposite side of the table.

Orihime glanced at the female Arrancar, "Nel-chan, thank goodness you're okay!" She tried to stand up to walk over to the other girl, but her legs gave out and she plopped back down on the floor instead.

"Inoue-san, you should rest for a few minutes Nel-san is fine, and Kurosaki-san was just checking to be sure you were alright. Now that we're sure all of you are okay, it's getting late Kurosaki-san, Kuchiki-san, you two should head home, I'll take care of the rest." Urahara said in a reassuring voice.

Ichigo sighed in defeat. "C'mon Rukia he's right, let's head home, maybe Yuzu saved us something for dinner."

Rukia stood up, walked over to Ichigo and they both made their way to the door to leave, but just before they stepped out Urahara called after them.

"And Kuchiki-san, remember what we discussed, not a word to Soul Society," he reminded her with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Hai, Urahara-san, but if this comes back to bite me, you're going down with me." She called back with an unpleasant smile on her face as they walked out the door.

* * *

A few moments after the door closed, Urahara pulled out his fan from seemingly nowhere, and held it up in front of his face before he spoke.

"Whew, now that everything's all settled, it's time you ladies start heading home and I'll show you boys to your rooms. I have a long night of work ahead of me," he stated as he stood up.

"I hope we have separate rooms, cause I refuse to have batman here sneak around me while I sleep," Grimmjow grumbled.

"I wouldn't bother to sneak around trash." Ulquiorra replied as he gave the man seated to his right a sideways glance.

"Oh, of course I have two rooms, you're lucky that you boys came at the right time and no one from Soul Society was visiting," the former captain replied cheerfully.

"Urahara-san's right Nel-chan, we need to be heading out," Orihime chimed in as she stood up to leave.

"Okay Hime, good night guys, thanks Urahara-san," Nel cheered as she fell in line behind Orihime and closed the door after she exited.

The two girls left the shop and walked in silence for a few minutes before Orihime spoke to Nel.

"Well, at least now I have clothes that should fit you," she said with a grin on her face.

"Yay! We can play dress up, I always wanted to play that," the other girl replied.

Orihime yawned, "maybe tomorrow after school Nel-chan, I'm beat."

"Okay Hime, it's a promise!" The former Espada replied as they strolled down the street in the direction of the apartment.

* * *

**A/N – **Hmm, it seems like Nel's been spending too much time with Grimmjow. :p Alright, so far "Steal Your Heart" is on schedule, and I will continue to update twice a week, if anything changes I'll keep you guys posted. As always, thanks for reading and a special thanks to anyone that leaves a review.


	5. Like a Tiger Treading on the Flowers

**A/N- **Hey everybody, sorry I'm a little late updating and yet again thanks for reading. Also, a special thanks to everyone that reviewed.

**Disclaimer – **Nope, I still don't own Bleach.

* * *

Orihime awoke the next morning a few minutes before her alarm clock to the sound of hushed voices in her living room. She blinked, and waited for recognition to sink in, after living alone for so long she wasn't used to the sound of other people in her house.

_Wait, how many people are here? I should only hear Nel-chan, who else could be visiting this early?_

With that thought, she threw back the covers, hopped up out of her bed, and crossed her bedroom to the door. Slowly, she cracked it to take a peek at who could be out there.

"Hime you're up!" Nel shouted to her as she waved her hand for the other girl to come closer.

Orihime opened the bedroom door and made her way over to the middle of her living room. Just before she reached the table, she froze at the sight in front of her. The three Espada were seated at the table, but that's not what caused her to stop.

From this distance, she caught sight of Nel's face and realized that the crimson line across the bridge of her nose and her Arrancar mask were both gone.

"Oh my gosh, Nel-chan, you look different!" Orihime cried out as she stepped a bit closer to them.

"Of course we look different, we're in gigais," Grimmjow pointed out.

At the sound of his voice she turned to examine the sixth Espada, and noted that he too had no lines under his eyes, and the piece of jawbone that made up his mask was also gone.

"Wow Grimmjow, you don't appear quite as menacing as usual," the redhead replied with a giggle.

Finally, was Ulquiorra who was sitting with his back to her, therefore she couldn't see his face. She walked further into the room to stand alongside him and was completely astounded when he turned his face to gaze up at her.

At the sight of him, Orihime let out a shocked gasp, and quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands. The absence of his helmet paled in comparison to the fact that, not only did he have a normal colored complexion, but the teal tear marks on his face were absent.

_He looks completely normal, almost handsome even._

Without even thinking about it, she removed one of her hands from her mouth and reached downward to touch his cheek, but before she could, he abruptly turned his face away from her.

"Woman, there's no need to cause such a fuss," he stated as his face took on a measured look.

Grimmjow coughed loudly. "You need to get ready for school or we're going to be late."

She quickly averted her eyes, but couldn't hide the bright, red blush that covered her face. In that moment, she realized that she was standing there in her pink nightgown, while the rest of them were dressed in the uniform for her school.

"Wait, why are you wearing that uniform?" Orihime questioned the blue haired man.

"Urahara told us we need to attend school, something about fully experiencing life or some shit like that," Grimmjow grumbled.

"That means we'll get to see Ichigo!" Nel chimed in.

"Tch whatever, if you don't get your ass ready soon, we'll leave you behind, and figure out how to get there ourselves," Grimmjow said.

"Okay, I'm moving. Have you guys eaten yet? Cause I need to throw something together for Nel-chan and I quick."

"We already ate, now quit stalling!" The blue haired Espada barked at her.

Orihime jumped slightly in surprise at the man's comment, and took off for her bedroom to grab her uniform so she could get ready. When she reached her room, she grabbed her cell phone and sent Tatsuki a text telling her to go ahead of her, since she was going to be late.

* * *

A little while later, the group filed out the front door to head off to school and after locking it, Orihime headed down the steps to where the others were waiting for her. Nel began to skip ahead of them a bit, and would stop every once in a while as something interesting would catch her eye.

"Oi, you little brat! Stop wandering off, we don't have time for that right now," Grimmjow shouted at the girl.

Nel stopped a few feet ahead of him, spun around and pouted. "Grimmy's so mean and I'm not little anymore!"

Grimmjow frowned at her. "What the hell did you just call me?" He cried out in disbelief.

Nel giggled in response as she turned to face the direction they were heading, and skipped off.

"Come back here, brat!" Grimmjow bellowed as he took off after the girl.

"Wait! You guys don't know which way the school is," Orihime called out as they sprinted further down the sidewalk.

"Leave them, if they end up getting lost, it'll be their own indiscretion." Ulquiorra told her while he made no attempt to catch up with them.

"Don't you ever worry about others? They're your companions, you should feel something toward them." Orihime declared with a confused expression on her face as she studied him.

"I've already told you woman, I have no need for human emotions," he replied as his gaze met hers, and he stopped walking.

At that same moment, a giggling Nel rushed up behind Orihime. Suddenly, she threw her arms around the redhead's shoulders to hide from Grimmjow, as he came racing toward her.

"You need to stop saying that," she declared with a hostile look on her face as she took a step toward Ulquiorra with Nel's arms still over her shoulders. Meanwhile, Grimmjow stopped a few steps back from the group to observe the situation unfolding in front of him.

"If you're staying here, and living as a human, you should start acting as such. Would it be awful to depend on others? Would it kill you to have friends?" Orihime questioned as her eyes searched his for a moment before she turned away, not even giving him time to respond.

She reached up to grab Nel's hand and pulled her forward, "C'mon Nel-chan, you shouldn't be late your first day," the ginger haired girl said in a bitter tone, as she dragged the other girl away from Ulquiorra.

Grimmjow gave the other man a perplexed look and shrugged his shoulders before he trailed off after the girls. Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes at Orihime's retreating form and proceeded to follow them to school.

* * *

Eventually, they walked down the crowded hall towards their classroom. For this reason, Orihime stopped in front of them and whirled around quickly to offer them a bit of last second advice.

"Just attempt to fit in and do your best, okay?" She encouraged them with a soft smile.

"What if we don't want to fit in?" Grimmjow asked as he gave her a cocky grin.

"You need to if you'll be staying here. For today, just observe people and how they interact with each other," she suggested in return.

"C'mon guys, she's right and we owe it to Hime to at least try," Nel said just as the bell rang.

Orihime entered the classroom and took her usual seat while Grimmjow, Nel, and then Ulquiorra lined up in front of the blackboard and waited to be introduced. Orihime glanced around at her friends' faces to gauge their reactions.

Ichigo and Uryū appeared to be obviously upset, as the latter repeatedly adjusted his glasses and the former had an angry scowl on his face. On the other hand, Rukia and Chad appeared as if they could've cared less, since both of them were wearing indifferent expressions.

"Good morning class, today we have three transfer students joining us; Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck and Ulquiorra Cifer" Ms. Ochi announced to the students. "You three can have a seat in the back," she told them before she started the lesson.

Nel rushed to sit behind Orihime, while Ulquiorra walked over and took the seat adjacent her, which left Grimmjow sitting on the other side of him.

"Hey, I wanted to sit behind Kurosaki." Grimmjow whispered harshly to Ulquiorra.

"That is exactly why I sat here, the two of you would cause nothing short of a disturbance," he informed the cerulean haired man, just before Ichigo cocked his head to one side and glared at them out of the corner of his eye.

Nel interrupted them with a quick "shhh," and everyone fell silent as they focused their attention on the lesson.

* * *

As soon as the bell signaling lunch rang, Uryū stood up from his seat and rotated around to address the entire group.

"We need to talk," the black haired Quincy announced as he glared at the three extra people in their company.

"C'mon Ishida, let's take this up to the roof," Ichigo replied as he walked past the other man and exited the classroom.

All of them proceeded to follow behind him, when they reached the roof, they unpacked their lunches, and began to eat in an awkward silence.

"Now, will someone please explain why we're having lunch with three of the Espada, two of which last I checked, were dead." Uryū demanded.

With this statement Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro all choked on their various lunches.

"D-d-dead? What do you mean dead?" Keigo stuttered.

"Espada? These are the guys you fought against in the war?" Tatsuki growled as she held up her hand, clenched it into a fist, and fired a glare at the two males in question.

"Why don't we let them explain, they wouldn't be in our class if they were planning on killing us," Chad interrupted while he stared at Ichigo for answers.

Ichigo sighed. "Inoue, explain to them what happened."

"Hai, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime's face became slightly pink at Ichigo's words.

The group continued to eat their lunches as she retold the story of what had taken place in the last couple of days. When she finished, everyone sat in silence as they took in everything she said.

"Now what? We're just supposed to pretend the war never happened?" Uryū questioned no one in particular.

"For now at least we shouldn't treat them as enemies, unless they do anything for us believe otherwise, and if they do I'll kick their asses," Ichigo said.

"You wish you could kick my ass, punk!" Grimmjow yelled at the Shinigami.

"If I remember correctly, I wiped the floor with you!" The orange haired boy shouted back as he stepped toward the blue haired man.

At that moment, the bell rang and alerted all of them that it was time to return to class. Ichigo bent down to pick up his lunchbox and continued to bicker with the other man as they made their way to the door. With that, the rest of the group followed behind them, engaged in their own conversations. Consequently, none of them noticed that two people from the group had been left behind.

* * *

As Orihime finished packing up what was left of her lunch, she glanced up to realize there was no one there, except for Ulquiorra. He stood there in front of the fence, with his hands in his pockets, staring off into space.

_Maybe I should talk to him? I did act a little harsh this morning._

She walked over to stand beside him and waited a moment for him to acknowledge her, in return he gave her a sideways glance.

"Gomenasai," Orihime said with a slight bow. "I probably came across as a bit rude to you this morning, it's just that I can't understand why you won't let anyone get closer to you," she said with her eyes fixed on his face.

He slowly blinked as he turned to fully face her, and when he opened his eyes, she thought she caught a flash of exasperation in his emerald gaze.

"You humans and your absurd ideas. Hollows don't have friends, they live a life of solitude and survival," Ulquiorra replied.

"That's not true. Nel-chan had her Fracción, who she loved like family," she argued, her gaze never breaking from his.

"Love? Would you say it was because of the heart that she felt such a worthless emotion?" He narrowed his eyes at her, "Is that the reason you entrust yours to a man that will never feel the same?"

As he noticed the tears begin to form in her eyes, he turned and walked away from her toward the door. When he reached it, he paused as he gripped the handle.

"How foolish," he muttered before opening the door and leaving the roof.

Just as the door clicked shut behind him, Orihime collapsed to the ground, and cried silent tears. Shortly after she finished crying, she wiped her eyes and made her way over to the exit. She needed to stop by the bathroom, and wash her face before she could return to class.


	6. Blooming Under a Cold Moon

**Disclaimer - **See chapter one.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Orihime and Nel walked down the sidewalk headed home from school as Grimmjow followed behind them and Ulquiorra trailed farther back.

"Hime, that's terrible that you dropped your lunch and ended up coming back to class late, you're lucky Ms. Ochi wasn't upset," Nel told the other girl with a soft smile.

Orihime giggled nervously and reached up to scratch the back of her head."Yeah, I have no idea how it happened. It just slipped out of my hand, and suddenly my leftovers were all over the floor. I couldn't just leave it there," she replied sheepishly.

"You're a real klutz, you realize that?" Grimmjow stated from behind her.

Orihime's cheeks turned a soft pink at his comment. "Gomenasai," she said.

"Don't apologize to me, that's your problem," he answered in return.

"Hime! You promised me today we'd play dress up," Nel interrupted cheerfully.

"Oh God," Grimmjow grumbled as he rolled his eyes.

"Nel-chan, we probably won't have time tonight, I promise we'll play another time," the redhead told the other girl.

"Awe, are you sure?" Nel muttered with a disappointed expression on her face.

"I'm sorry Nel-chan, maybe we'll be able to this weekend," Orihime said with a sad smile on her face as the stairs to her apartment came into view.

"You two should be able to walk the rest of the way by yourselves without doing something stupid, we're heading home." Grimmjow announced as he broke off from them and crossed the street in the direction of Urahara's shop. Ulquiorra fell in line a few steps behind him.

"Bye Grimmy! Bye Ulquiorra!" Nel cried out to the two men as she waved to them, even though their backs were to her.

Immediately, the blue haired man gave her the finger as he shouted over his shoulder in return. "Shut up brat!"

"Good night," Orihime said in a soft voice as she turned around to head up the stairs to her apartment.

* * *

That evening, after they had finished their homework and eaten dinner, Orihime found herself digging through her closet, again to find Nel clothes.

"Here you go Nel-chan, now that we're almost the same size, these should fit you," Orihime told the other girl as she held out a purple pajama set for her.

The sea green haired girl held the pajamas up to examine them. "These are so adorable! Look at the little, yellow moons and stars all over them," she responded in awe.

"I'm glad you like them," Orihime replied as she turned back to the closet to pull out something for herself to wear.

"You should wear that cute pink nightgown," Nel pointed out to her. "You have such beautiful clothes, I wish I had a closet full of outfits. All I ever wore was my uniform and that ragged cloth," she stated with a slightly sad look on her face.

"Well, now you can wear anything you want except for to school, of course," Orihime replied.

"Hime, are you alright? You've been distant ever since lunch."

She flashed Nel a fake smile. "I'm fine Nel-chan, don't worry."

"Ulquiorra didn't say anything nasty to you, did he? When we reached the classroom, I noticed you two were missing, and a few minutes later, he came in without you." Nel said as she stared at Orihime with a worried expression.

Orihime stiffened for a moment before she gave a nervous laugh. "No, he didn't say anything. C'mon, it's time for bed, we need to be up early for school tomorrow."

"Awe, how often is school anyway? I hope it's not every day," questioned Nel.

"No, it's not every day. We get weekends off and after this week, it's closed for winter break," Orihime explained to her.

"Yay! What's winter break?"

"Winter break is when school's closed for the holidays. I'll explain those later, right now I'm exhausted Nel-chan, I'm going to sleep." Orihime replied as she threw back the covers and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Okay, night Hime," the other girl replied as she crossed the bedroom toward the door. As soon as Nel reached the doorway, she paused for a second to glance at Orihime over her shoulder and her face broke into a sly smile before she walked out the door.

* * *

At around midnight that night, Grimmjow was lying on his futon, and staring up at the ceiling when he heard a slight sound of movement outside his window. Immediately, he stood up and crept over to it, prepared to attack whoever was trying to sneak in. All of a sudden, the window burst open, and all he caught sight of was the curvy shadow of a body as it tackled him to the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing?" He snapped at the intruder. With the window wide open the moonlight streamed through, and he realized who was on top of him.

"Grimmy?" Nel asked in a confused tone as she squinted at him and leaned her face down closer to his.

"Get the hell off of me! Why are you even here?" He growled while he stopped her in mid motion by grabbing her shoulders, and giving her a light push.

"Sorry, I thought you were Ulquiorra," she apologized as she turned away with a shy smile and lifted herself off of him to sit on his futon.

"Yeah, cause that would've worked fantastic against batman, he wouldn't even have paused before throwing a Gran Rey Cero at your ass," he pointed out to her while he wrestled himself up to a standing position, and crossed the room to close the window.

"Nah, I bet I could've at least hit him with a sucker punch first." She declared with a smile on her face while holding up her fist for emphasis.

"What are you pissed off at him for anyway? I've barely even seen him speak to you," he replied after he closed the window, and strolled back over to the futon to take a seat facing her.

Nel's face flushed slightly before she answered him. "I'm not sure exactly what he did, except that he probably said something to Hime that caused her to be troubled," she mumbled as she quickly avoided his gaze.

"If you're not sure what he did, how can you assume it's his fault? And why do you care anyway?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"It's clear she's been upset since after lunch, when no one noticed the two of them were left behind, and he came back a while before she did. There's no way she dropped her leftovers, also her eyes were slightly red as if she'd been crying. Therefore, it could only be his fault, and of course I care, she's my friend," she stated in a firm voice.

Grimmjow shrugged. "Tch whatever, he's in the living room reading, I've yet to ever see him sleep."

"C'mon, let's find out what happened," Nel told him before she bolted up off the floor, and took off for the living room.

Grimmjow rolled his eyes while he stood up to follow after her. "This should be interesting."

* * *

No sooner had the words left Nel's mouth, she charged into the living room, and plopped down on the floor right beside Ulquiorra. A few seconds after she sat down, Grimmjow appeared in the doorway, and strolled over to sit across the table from the two of them.

"Is it a good idea to be sneaking out into the cold this late in your nightwear?" Ulquiorra questioned the girl, his eyes never leaving the open book in his hands.

Nel frowned at him as she snatched the book out of his hands, and slammed it shut on the table.

"What happened between you and Hime this afternoon?" the turquoise haired girl demanded with a furious expression on her face.

He slightly narrowed his eyes at her. "I have no need to explain my actions to trash."

"Ulquiorra, haven't you caused her enough pain?" Nel questioned with a tearful look in her eyes.

"You're beginning to sound similar to a human," he replied as he eased himself up off the floor. "Also, what I do is none of your concern," with that statement he turned in the opposite direction, and left the room.

"What a bunch of bullshit," Grimmjow announced a moment after the other man left, startling Nel out of her thoughts.

"Why do you say that?" she asked as she shifted to face him across the table.

"Cause he's always been defensive when it comes to her. Whenever anyone mentioned that woman to Ulquiorra, he'd tell them it was not their problem. Also, he never let anyone into her room as if she would be damaged or something. No one would've seriously harmed her, except for Loly and Menoly, although those whores didn't count." He told her with his eyes fixated on the doorway.

"Maybe he genuinely cares for her?" Nel questioned the blue haired man.

Immediately, Grimmjow howled with laughter as he turned back to face her. "How did you come to that conclusion? Batman was definitely the most apathetic among the Espada."

"It's possible, they did spend a bunch of time together, and you just mentioned that he basically kept Hime all to himself," she pointed out to him while she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, right I refuse to believe it," he replied as his grin began to fade.

"It's also obvious she feels at least something for him. When you told her to bring Ulquiorra back, she only hesitated due to the fact that she thought it was impossible, not because she didn't want to."

A suspicious little half-smile curved his lips. "Wait, now you think that she loves him? You've lost your damn mind."

"I said she feels something, I didn't say she's in love with him," she snapped at him.

"That woman's in love with that punk Kurosaki, even I noticed that," he disputed with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"Yeah, but that's a lost cause, this isn't, maybe if we just gave them a little push in the right-"

"We? Who's 'we'? I'm not getting dragged into this, you're on your own," he interrupted with an aggravated expression on his face.

"C'mon Grimmy, I can't do this alone," she pleaded with him as she pouted her lips.

"Listen, you can do whatever the hell you want. However, I still believe you're jumping to conclusions."

All of a sudden, Nel stood up from the floor with a frown on her face, and glared down at him. "Okay, I'll show you that I'm right."

"Sure, come back when you finally have concrete evidence" he replied sarcastically.

She gave him a quick nod before she turned toward the doorway they came through earlier, and drifted over to it.

"Umm, where are you going?" Grimmjow asked her as he arched his eyebrows.

"I'm sneaking out the same way I came in, that way I don't disturb anyone," she whispered loudly as she paused in the doorway headed back to his room.

"Just go out the front door! You should've been quieter while you were interrogating Ulquiorra if you were worried about disturbing anyone." He told her while he pointed toward the front door.

Nel sighed as she whirled around, stomped over to the door and paused just as she opened it. "Alright, at least promise me you'll consider everything I just said."

"Trust me, I won't forget what you just told me anytime soon, I'm probably going to have nightmares now," he told her as he studied her face.

In return she gave him a bright smile. "Thanks, night Grimmy!" With that, she walked out the front door and slid it closed gently behind her.

"Damn brat," he muttered as he stood and headed off to retire to his futon for the rest of the night.


	7. A Reminder of One's Former Self

**Disclaimer - **Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.

* * *

The following afternoon, the shrill ringing of the bell signified to the students that lunch was over, and it was time to return to class. Accordingly, they packed up their lunches and the misfit group made their way back to their classroom. As soon as the students were all situated in their seats, Mrs. Ochi instructed them to pull out their sketch books and a few pencils.

"Alright students, it's time for art, today you'll be working on your own. We'll stop in an hour that way all of you will have time to come up here, and explain what you sketched to the class before the next lesson," Mrs. Ochi informed them as she heard a few soft groans in protest.

"Hey, suck it up, it's not a tough project. All you need to do is sketch one of your happiest memories." She told them as she sat down at her desk to grade other assignments while they began to work quietly.

The entire class had assorted expressions ranging from Orihime and Nel's determined smiles, to the furthest extreme being Keigo's panic regarding which memory he should draw.

On the other hand, Grimmjow sat in his corner seat with a maniacal grin on his face, while he scratched lines into his artwork rough enough to almost rip it. In between Nel and Grimmjow sat Ulquiorra, who softly sketched with a bored expression on his face.

* * *

A little while later, Mrs. Ochi informed them that it was time to stop working, and she would call on them one at a time to come up to the front.

When it was Nel's turn, she proudly strode to the front of the room, and waited till the last second to turn her paper over for the other students to view.

"This is Nel, Pesche, Dondochakka, and Bawabawa playing eternal tag," Nel informed all of them proudly as she pointed to the picture she drew.

In it Pesche, Dondochakka, and Bawabawa were chasing a smaller Nel, as she ran crying across the desert under a crescent moon.

Although, the other students noticed the people in the picture were drawn rather strange and it appeared as if a three year old drew it, they clearly understood what she was explaining.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Ichigo interrupted with a stunned expression on his face. "Nel, where the hell did you find crayons?"

"Kurosaki-san, language! Don't listen to him Nel-san, you did an excellent job! It's just who are the people in the picture, and is that a snake?" Mrs. Ochi questioned Nel as she gave the girl a confused look.

Nel glanced down at the paper in her hands quickly before responding. "Pesche and Dondochakka are my brothers and Bawabawa is our pet, the three of us together are The Thieves Nel Don Pe." she cheered while striking a pose.

"That's lovely Nel-san, you can take your seat," Mrs. Ochi told the girl with an encouraging smile. "Jaegerjaquez-san, it's your turn," the teacher called out to him.

Meanwhile, Grimmjow strolled up through the rows of desks, grinning from ear to ear. As soon as he reached the blackboard he instantly turned his illustration around for the other students to see, earning him a collective gasp.

"Feast your eyes on this!" Grimmjow growled at them.

Accordingly, his work of art was nothing short of a bloody massacre. In it were all the Espada cheering on Grimmjow, referring to him as the king and such, while the blue haired man stood on top of Ichigo's dead body, impaled by Pantera.

"What's with the awful stick figures?" Ichigo paused as he stared at the drawing for a second to read the names scribbled on it to label everyone.

"Maybe he made it that awful on purpose to represent his hatred for you," Tatsuki chimed in.

"Hey, wait a minute, that didn't even happen!" Ichigo shouted as he abruptly stood up and pointed at the cerulean haired man.

"Yeah, it did I kicked your ass remember!" Grimmjow shouted at the orange haired Shinigami and took a step toward him with his hand curled up into a fist.

"Okay boys enough. Jaegerjaquez, return to your seat, that was a bit disturbing. Inoue-san, it's your turn to come up and present what you drew," Mrs. Ochi said in a firm voice.

Immediately, Orihime stood up with an enormous grin on her face and made her way to the front of the classroom.

In contrast to Grimmjow's picture, Orihime's was drawn considerably decent and had no bloodshed. It was a sunny day in a park, and she was a little girl, eating ice cream as she held her brother's hand.

"This is my brother Sora and I, even though he passed away a few years ago, I still cherish the memories we shared. I wish I could have drawn them all," the redhead explained with a smile on her face and slightly sad look in her eyes.

"Great job Inoue-san, now take your seat. Cifer-san, you're next," the teacher told them as she jotted down something on the piece of paper in front of her.

Ulquiorra stood up from his chair and noiselessly traveled over to the blackboard with one hand in his pocket, and the other holding his paper down.

Upon reaching the front of the room, he rotated around, and held up his picture. For a few silent moments, the entire class stared at it with confused looks on their faces.

"Umm, Cifer-san, what's it supposed to be? It appears to be a gigantic, rose bush, except without any flowers." Ms. Ochi questioned the young man while she looked just as baffled as the students.

The black haired man gave her a sideways glance before answering her. "Nihilism."

"That's not a proper answer! Do you even understand what that word means?" Mrs. Ochi shouted in frustration at his response.

"Of course I do," he replied before returning to his seat without waiting to be dismissed.

"Alright, moving on Asano-san, please tell me you have something normal to present." The young teacher announced as a deep crease appeared on her forehead, and she began to rub her temples with her fingers.

As Keigo stood up at the front of the room stuttering about what he drew, Orihime passed a folded piece of paper to Nel, and tilted her head towards Ulquiorra.

In return, Nel gave her a nod, leaned sideways toward him, and inconspicuously tossed the note on his desk. Ulquiorra glanced down at it for a second before he removed his hands from his pockets, and smoothly unfolded it.

_Ulquiorra,_

_What she meant by your happiest memory was that it should be something positive. A memory that you feel as if you couldn't live without, one that you'll always find comfort in._

_Orihime_

After he read the note, he folded it up neatly, and stuck it in his pocket before he glanced over at the ginger haired girl. When their eyes met she gave him an encouraging smile, and in return he gave her his usual stoic expression before he went back to staring at the front of the room.

A few minutes passed, and his face took on a slightly considerate look as he flipped to the last page in his notebook. He stared at the blank page for a moment before he started softly sketching something, which he continued to work on for the rest of the day.

* * *

Finally, the bell rang indicating to the students that the day was over, and it was time to head home. Since Grimmjow noticed Ulquiorra drawing something all through class, he made it a point to quickly stand up, and as inconspicuous as possible glance over at what the other man had spent half the day working on.

As soon as, he realized what Ulquiorra drew Grimmjow's jaw practically hit the floor in shock. Immediately, he stretched and played it off as a yawn before anyone could tell what he was up to.

In the meantime, the others began to make their way out the door, and Ulquiorra didn't seem to notice the blue haired man as he snapped the notebook shut, and stuffed it into his school bag.

* * *

"I thought your picture was really sweet, Hime." Nel told Orihime as they walked across the courtyard toward the front gate.

"Arigato Nel-chan," the redhead replied to the other girl walking alongside her. "It's been awfully cold lately, I hope it snows in time for Christmas."

"What's snow? And Christmas?" The sea green haired girl questioned her.

"Well, snow is basically frozen water that falls from the sky, but it's lots of fun to play in." She replied with a grin, "and Christmas is a holiday that you spend with your family and friends where you buy gifts to exchange with them." Orihime informed her as the smile on her face grew brighter.

"Wait, earlier you mentioned that your brother passed away, then who do you spend Christmas with?" Nel asked her innocently.

Orihime stiffened for a second and her smile dulled a bit before she responded. "Usually, I spend it with Tatsuki and her mom, unless they're off visiting their family," by this point the smile was completely gone from her face and her eyes grew distant.

"It's alright Hime, this year you have us, even though we don't fully understand it, we'll still have a blast," Nel announced cheerfully.

"I'm not buying shit for anyone. Besides, I have no money and even if I did, I wouldn't waste it on something as stupid as that." Grimmjow interjected from behind the two girls.

"Oh, you don't have to buy anything, it's meaningful enough just being with people who you care about." Orihime told him and waved her arms dismissively.

"Whatever," the cerulean haired man responded.

With this, Orihime remembered something and stopped walking to turn around and gaze at the quietest man in the group. "Ulquiorra, did you consider what my note meant?"

Meanwhile, Ulquiorra walked up along Orihime's other side and began to speak with her.

At that moment, Grimmjow took the opportunity to gently grab Nel's arm, pulling her slightly back from them, and in return she gave him a puzzled expression. The other two didn't notice as Grimmjow and Nel slowed their pace a bit that way there would be some distance between the two pairs.

Once they were out of earshot, Grimmjow leaned closer to whisper in Nel's ear. "Tonight after midnight you need to sneak over again, I have something to show you that you're not going to believe."

She turned to him with wide eyes and a startled expression on her face, "Grimmy, you are disgusting! How can you even say that to a lady? You pervert!" She shouted and took off running ahead of him.

When she passed Orihime and Ulquiorra, she happened to bump the ginger haired woman just enough to push her into the man beside her.

"Gomenasai," Orihime told him and straighten herself upright. "Nel-chan where are you going?" She shouted after the turquoise haired girl.

"That's not what I meant, you brat! Hold on a minute and let me explain, dammit!" Grimmjow roared as he took off after Nel at a blinding speed.

Just as Grimmjow came barreling in Orihime's direction to catch up with Nel, Ulquiorra grabbed her arm at the last second, and yanked her toward him, out of harm's way.

Orihime's face flushed bright red as she stared intently at the ground while pressed to his chest. A couple of seconds passed, and she stepped back from him still not able to lift her head, and meet his eyes.

"Um, thank you that probably would have been seriously painful," she told him with a nervous giggle as her blush began to fade.

"I would rather need to pull you out of the way, then handle all the commotion it would have caused had you actually been harmed," he replied while he glared in the direction the other two were running.

"See? It's not that awful being concerned for others, now is it?" Orihime questioned him and finally raised her face to display a pleased smile.

"I never claimed to be concerned," he argued while he stared down his nose at her.

"No, you're right, you didn't say it out loud, but your actions did," she teased him before she spun around and continued to travel down the sidewalk.

For a moment, he just stood there watching her wave to their other two companions in the distance, and then he began to head down the sidewalk to join them.


	8. Where Lies the Key to the Past

**A/N – **Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter, I'm sorry it's a little short. I want to thank all of you that are following, added this to their favorites, and of course left reviews, I really appreciate you guys!

**Disclaimer – **Bleach isn't mine.

* * *

Later that same chilly night, Grimmjow was pacing his room impatiently waiting for Nel to arrive. Finally, he heard the sounds of his guest creeping around outside, and walked over to open the window.

Quietly Nel climbed in, tiptoed over to his futon, and took a seat. He shut the window, and turned to look down at her for a moment, before walking over to sit across from her. Tonight she was wearing light blue pajamas covered with little, yellow ducks.

"You know, you really need to start dressing yourself," he said to her in a sarcastic tone. "And what are those strange creatures?" He raised his hand and pointed at her clothing.

"Hime says they're rubber ducks, you take them in the bath tub with you," she replied with a grin.

"If they belong in the bath, then what are they doing on your clothes?" He asked her with a confused expression.

"Cause they're cute!" Nel whispered loudly in return. "That's not important right now. What did you need to show me that I had to sneak out in the freezing cold at half past midnight?"

"You didn't seem to have a problem sneaking over here last night," he pointed out. "Besides, I had a hell of a time stealing this, you should be thanking me right now, not bitching." Grimmjow snapped as he pulled out a notebook from under his futon, and held it up for Nel to see.

"Yeah, and? That's the same notebook I have, if you called me over here just to look at your notebook-"

"No shit they're the same, Urahara bought them for all of us, and it's not my notebook, it's Ulquiorra's." He informed her as he flipped through the pages of Ulquiorra's neatly, written notes.

"So, let me get this straight, you wanted to show me Ulquiorra's notes? Why?" By this point she was beginning to look frustrated.

He ignored her and continued to turn the pages in the book for a few more seconds before he found what he was looking for.

"Shut up, this is what you needed to see," he declared as he shoved the picture Ulquiorra drew that afternoon in her face.

Accordingly, Nel pulled it back a bit from her face, and shot him a glare before focusing on the drawing in front of her. As soon as she realized what she was looking at her mouth fell open, and her eyes grew wide in surprise. Quickly, Grimmjow clamped his hand over her mouth to keep her from shouting.

"Shh," he told her a second before she nodded in return, and he removed his hand from her mouth.

"What do you think it means?" he asked as he stared down at the sketch she was holding in her lap.

The artwork in question was a haunting, yet beautiful portrait of Orihime. In it she was wearing the tattered remains of her Hueco Mundo uniform, and reaching out to whoever was looking at the picture. Notably, the most striking detail was her forlorn expression, with her eyes full of tears, and her lips parted as if she was calling out to whoever she was gazing at.

"I have no idea why he would draw of picture of Hime like this, she looks so heartbroken." Nel answered him in a soft voice while she continued to stare at it.

"It could be a memory from just before his death," Grimmjow offered.

"When did he draw this?" she asked him.

"In class after he presented his crappy picture of a dead plant." He replied bluntly.

She frowned down at the sketch. "Maybe it means that this is really his happiest memory?"

With this observation Grimmjow broke out in a soft chuckle. "You know, it doesn't actually surprise me that his happiest memory has something to do with that woman. What I want to know is why the fuck would he draw her looking at him like that?"

"Perhaps it was when he finally noticed that she felt something toward him," she breathed in response as she glanced up to meet his gaze.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Nel's face broke out in an enormous smile. "I told you he cared for her, now you have to help me. Don't forget you promised."

"I didn't promise shit!" He replied in a hostile whisper.

"Yes, you did. You said once I found some evidence you'd help me, well, there's your evidence." She told him as she held up the picture for emphasis.

Grimmjow shook his head. "Nope, I promised to think about the fact that you're crazy and jump to conclusions. Plus, I found that and if I hadn't shown it to you, you never would have even known."

"Grimmy, you're so awful. How could you lie to me like that?" she whined quietly.

He let out a deep sigh. "I never lied to you, but you were right, I'll give you that."

"Well, then you're going to help me, and that's all there is to it," Nel said, eyeing him closely.

"Okay, okay, damn you're persistent," he grumbled in return. "When are you planning on putting this crazy scheme into action?"

"Um, how about tomorrow? There's no school since it's Saturday, so Hime and I are going to spend the day shopping, and she's going to show me around the city." She informed him with a hopeful expression.

"Shopping? With two girls? I'd rather have my arm cut off again, no, make that both arms." He argued as he shook his head.

"Tough, you're coming along. I need you, so we can sneak off together and leave those two alone," she said.

"Tch, I still don't understand why you need me for this. Can't you just wander off on your own?" he questioned.

"No, if I wandered off on my own that would cause Hime worry. Besides, if I invite Ulquiorra to go shopping with just Hime and I, he'll say no," she pointed out.

He paused for a moment before answering her. "Okay, now how am I supposed to convince him to come along?"

Nel tapped her lips with her fingertips for a moment while she thought of a good excuse. "Hmm, you could tell him that Hime's going to show us around the city, and he needs to come along so he knows where everything is."

A sneer touched the corner of his lips. "I doubt it'll work, but I'll give it a shot. On a side note, your plan sucks."

"No it doesn't, it'll work just fine as long as you stick with me, plus it's going to be fun!" she cheered softly.

"There's no way in hell he and I are going to have fun, you girls might, but I guarantee you we won't," he replied.

"Alright, now that's all settled, I'm going home and heading to bed." Nel stood up and walked over to his bedroom door.

"Wait, where the hell are you going?" Grimmjow growled at her.

"Out the front door," she stated.

"No, climb your ass back out the window, same as when you came in," he hissed with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Last time you made me leave through the front door, now this time you're telling me to go out the window, you need to make up your mind," she huffed as she crossed the room.

"Yeah, but this time it's later, and I need to return this notebook back to where I found it. If you parade through the house and out the front door you'll wake Ulquiorra up," he picked up the notebook off the floor, and walked over to stand beside her at the window.

"Okay, I get the point, I'm going," Nel quietly opened the window, swung her legs out of it, and sat there before turning her head to look at Grimmjow.

"We'll be here tomorrow around nine, so you guys better be ready." She gave him a slight wave, before pushing off the windowsill and landing on the ground.

"That girl is seriously crazy," he mumbled to himself as he shut the window, and drifted over to his door, headed for Ulquiorra's room.

When Grimmjow reached Ulquiorra's room, he silently cracked the door, and peeked in to be sure the other man was still asleep. He couldn't see Ulquiorra's face, since he was turned away from Grimmjow, so he waited a moment to see if the other man was going to stir.

After waiting almost a full minute Grimmjow saw no movement from Ulquiorra, so he opened the door just enough to reach in, and grab his school bag sitting beside the door. Grimmjow quickly stuffed the notebook into the bag, placed it right back where he got it from, and closed the door to return to his room.

Grimmjow never even recognized the fact that it wasn't Ulquiorra sleeping on the futon in his room, but his gigai. Once he returned to his room, he lay down on his own futon, and let out a relieved sigh as he waited to drift off to sleep.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Nel trekked home in the freezing cold she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following her, so she began to walk as quickly as she could without actually running.

Finally, she walked through the front door to Orihime's apartment after what felt like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes. Quietly she locked it, and tiptoed over to Orihime's room to check on her. When she was sure the other woman was still sound asleep, Nel headed off to bed.

What she had failed to notice as she peeked in on Orihime, was the shadow of a person, standing out on the balcony watching through the sheer curtains. Shortly after Nel went to bed it turned around, spread its wings and flew off into the night.

* * *

**A/N – **Okay, so real quick I wanted to point out that I know there hasn't been very much UlquiHime action going on, and quite a bit of GrimmNel but don't worry, things are going to start taking a turn next chapter. ;)


	9. Roll the Red Carpet Out With Friends

**A/N - **Okay for those of you that have been following the story so far, remember how the last chapter was so short? Well, this chapter is super long, not to make up for it, but because I had so much to fit into it. I thought about splitting it into two, but I figured that would ruin the flow, besides, it's not like people are going to riot because it's so long. I even edited the crap out of it, I took out little things here and there...and added new things. Anyways, thanks to everyone that's been following this and those that have left reviews. Particularly those who've left multiple reviews, you guys deserve a cookie. :)

* * *

In the morning, as the sun began to rise, Orihime's room grew brighter, which in turn made the redhead burrow further under her blankets. Suddenly, her bed began to shake violently, and she couldn't avoid waking up any longer.

At that moment, her roommate was jumping around on the empty space in her bed. "Hime, wake up! It's time to get out of bed! We're going shopping today!" Nel cheered in a singsong voice.

Orihime threw back the covers and gazed up at the overjoyed girl. "I'm glad you're excited Nel-chan, but it's a little early to be making such a racket." Leaving the bed, she dragged herself over to the closet to pick out something for them to wear.

"I just can't wait to spend the day shopping for cute clothes, and seeing tons of new stuff with everybody. We're going to have so much fun!" Nel sat down on the bed with a grin on her face from ear to ear.

"Who's everybody?" Orihime called over her shoulder at the other girl as she grabbed some clothes, and walked over to her.

"We're meeting up with Grimmy and Ulquiorra, they're coming with us," Nel gave a disapproving look at the clothes Orihime was handing her. "This is the first time we're all going out together, which makes it a special occasion, so we should dress nice." she informed the redhead and pouted her lips.

"Alright, let me see what I can find, nothing too dressy though," Orihime took the clothes from Nel and went back to the closet to exchange them.

For Nel, Orihime pulled out a powder blue pullover, with a matching knee length skirt, covered in navy colored roses, and a pair of black boots. "Is this dressy enough for you?" She held the outfit out to Nel, who in turn snatched it from her hands.

"Hime, this is adorable!" Nel exclaimed as she began to remove her pajamas.

Meanwhile, the redhead went back to the closet to dig out her own outfit. For herself, she chose a pale yellow sweater, with a pink skirt that went down to her mid-calf, and yellow slip on shoes.

"C'mon Nel-chan, I'll throw together a light breakfast to hold us over until lunch time." Orihime crossed the room, and headed for the kitchen, with the cheerful girl following behind her.

* * *

Some time later, the girls arrived at Urahara's shop, and just before they reached the front door, it slid open. Grimmjow stood in the doorway for a moment, staring over his shoulder at something, then he turned his gaze toward them, and began to walk over. He was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans, a white shirt, and a black leather jacket.

A second later Ulquiorra, Urahara, and Yoruichi trailed out the door behind him. Ulquiorra's clothing was entirely black which consisted of a sweater, jeans, and a knee length jacket. Urahara stopped just outside the door while Yoruichi sat down beside him, and Ulquiorra walked over to join the group in the yard.

"Good morning Urahara-san, Yoruichi-san." Orihime gave a slight bow, Nel noticing this followed her actions. Only when Nel raised her head did she actually notice Yoruichi sitting there.

"Oh, look a kitty!" She ran over, picked Yoruichi up, and spun around while she squeezed the poor cat tightly to her chest.

"Nel-chan! Please, you're going to make her sick!" Orihime held up her hands and took a step toward the enthusiastic girl.

Nel pouted in return and placed back Yoruichi on the ground in the same place she had just plucked her from. She took a step back from Yoruichi and bowed, "I'm sorry, I've never seen such a cute, little kitty."

Urahara pulled out his fan and waved it in front of his face. "Ah, to be young again, you remember those days Yoruichi-san?" He glanced down at the cat seated at his feet and in return she squinted up at him.

"Orihime-chan, can I speak to you for a moment?" He called in a playful tone beckoning her over with his fan.

"Hai, Urahara-san," Orihime broke away from the others and walked over to him.

"Inoue-san, here's some money for Nel-chan to buy anything she needs." He told her in a low voice. "I already gave the boys their share, and explained how it works, so they should be okay." Urahara grabbed her hand and stuffed the money into it.

"Urahara-san, thank you but I can't-"

"Yes you can, the boys have helped out around the shop, and it wouldn't be fair to exclude Nel-chan." He held up his fan to silence before she could protest again.

"Thank you Urahara-san," she bowed quickly and turned to rejoin the others.

"Enjoy your day," The man in the hat called out and waved his fan at them as they drifted away. The girls turned and waved back while the boys continued walking.

* * *

The group walked leisurely down the sidewalk, with Orihime and Nel in the front, followed by Grimmjow and Ulquiorra.

"Hime, can we go to the clothing store first?"

"Sure Nel-chan, as a matter of fact, it's close by."

"Why are we stopping at a clothing store?" Ulquiorra questioned from behind Nel as he walked with his hands in his pockets.

"Well, all of you need to buy clothes for yourselves, you can't wear other people's, or your school uniforms all the time," Orihime replied holding up her index finger.

Ulquiorra glared over at Grimmjow, who was gazing off in the opposite direction. "I thought we were walking around the city, not shopping."

Nel glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Ulquiorra, we _are_ walking around the city."

"Oh, there's the store," Orihime interrupted and pointed in the direction of the shop. The group walked the rest of the way in silence, and once they entered the store, Nel was the first to speak.

Nel's mouth fell open. "Hime! Look at all of these clothes!"

A second before Nel could take off Orihime grabbed her hand. "Wait Nel-chan, let me explain how this works."

Nel turned to face the other girl. "I'm sorry Hime, I'm just so excited."

"It's alright Nel-chan," she smiled softly at the other girl. "First, you pick out what you like, then you try it on in the dressing room. If you still like it you buy it, if not you put it back."

At the same time, the boys both shared a look and walked off toward the men's side of the store.

"So, it's pretty much like dress up?" Nel replied in a hopeful tone.

"Exactly, so why don't we pick out some things for you to try on?" Orihime suggested.

"Okay, but what about you? If we're playing dress up, you need something to wear too." She turned around, and began to skim the racks in front of her, pulling out different pieces of clothing.

Orihime glanced around and noticed the boys were missing, figuring they went off to find some clothes for themselves, she turned back to Nel.

"Aha! This dress would be perfect for you." The teal haired girl pulled out a long, elegant, black dress and handed it to her.

"Nel-chan, I can afford to buy this," she replied as the other girl went back to flipping through the clothes.

"You don't have to buy it, remember we're playing dress up, and I found another beautiful dress that I wanted to check out." She removed a short, black dress and took off for the dressing room. "C'mon Hime!" she called over her shoulder.

Orihime followed a few steps behind her, and when they arrived at the dressing room they decided that first, Nel would show Orihime what she picked out. When she was through, they would both put on the black dresses, and show each other.

One by one, Nel came out in a variety of outfits and performed different acts for each one, from silly facial expressions, to striking poses. Once she had finished, and decided what she was going to purchase, they both went to change into their dresses.

"Oi! Are you two done yet? We've been in here for hours! Are you trying to bore us to death?" Grimmjow suddenly shouted as he and Ulquiorra appeared outside the girl's dressing rooms.

Nel swung the door open and took a couple of steps out in her knee high boots. "Ta da!" She did a quick twirl, and struck a pose. At the sight of her, Grimmjow's eyes grew wide and his mouth gaped open in shock. The short, black, satin dress Nel picked was tight up top with a plunging neckline, and flared out at her hips.

Quickly, Grimmjow regained his composure. "What the hell? We won't be going anywhere that you'll need to wear something like that."

Nel frowned at him in return. "Awe, come on Grimmy, you're no fun, we're just playing dress up." She turned to the other dressing room that Orihime had yet to come out of. "Hime, come out, I want to see your dress."

Orihime called out through the door, "Nel, I really don't think this dress is right for me."

"We'll be the judges of that, now come out here," Nel encouraged.

Slowly, the door opened and Orihime crept out to stand in front of the others. Her black dress was a tight, floor length, halter covered in a shiny, material with a slit on one side, that went up to just above her mid-thigh.

"Oh Hime, it's beautiful!" Nel clapped her hands together in appreciation. "What do you guys think?"

"It's great, now get changed so we can leave." Grimmjow grumbled as he turned around and walked off to the cash register.

"Alright, but first Ulquiorra, what do you think?" Nel turned to the other man with a hopeful expression on her face.

The dark haired man looked up from a rack of belts he was inspecting and regarded Orihime for a moment. "It suits you woman," was his only response before he turned to follow in the direction Grimmjow just went.

With that Nel turned to grin at a blushing Orihime. "C'mon, there's still a lot more places you need to show us." The two girls went back into their rooms to change, and then made their way up front to pay for Nel's stuff.

* * *

A few minutes later, with their bags in hand, they walked down the street, and Nel stopped to look in the window of an antique store. "Wow, look at all this strange stuff! Hime, what sort of store is this?"

"It's called an antique shop, they sell a variety of old-fashioned items," she informed them as Nel opened the door and the others followed her in.

"Oh Grimmy, look at that!" Nel pointed with one hand, while she reached back with the other to grab Grimmjow's arm, and dragged him over toward something on the other side of the store.

Orihime turned to Ulquiorra and smiled at him. "Let's take a look around." The two of them wandered through the aisles glancing around at the objects scattered on the shelves.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until Orihime came across a white, wooden box covered in gold designs. Out of curiosity, she paused for a second to open it and a soft, melancholy tune began to play. Ulquiorra glanced up from a book he had found to see her gazing at the small object with a sad smile on her face.

Without taking her eyes off of it, she spoke to him. "I remember the year that Onii-chan died, we were walking through the city one day, and I saw a music box in a store window. It had a little, pink ballerina twirling inside of it and I told him I wished I owned something that beautiful. He just smiled at me and reminded me that Christmas was coming."

Ulquiorra put the book back on the shelf and walked up beside her. "You always speak so highly of your brother."

"Of course!" She lifted her face to meet his eyes. "If it wasn't for Onii-chan, I probably wouldn't be here right now. Our parents were abusive alcoholics, so when Sora turned eighteen and I was three, he took me away and raised me on his own."

At this statement he frowned at her, in return, she waved her arms, and gave a nervous giggle. "Everything turned out alright, until he died three years ago, then I was all alone. But I decided to be happy, so he wouldn't worry about me, although I ended up hurting him because he thought I stopped caring and he turned into a hollow."

"Your brother became a hollow?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Not by choice," She declared. "In his grief he tried to kill me, that's when Kurosaki-kun first became a Shinigami, and he saved me. In the end, Onii-chan took Kurosaki-kun's Zanpakutō and purified himself."

His face took on a measured look. "That's the reason you were never afraid of me, your brother was a hollow."

Orihime smiled at him. "No, it was because I knew that you'd never hurt me, no matter how many times you threatened to." She waved her hand dismissively and walked past him to find Nel and Grimmjow.

Meanwhile, they found the other two people from their party fooling around at the register. Nel was leaning on the counter, trying on jewelry, and talking to the older shopkeeper, whereas Grimmjow was swinging around a katana a few feet from them.

"You shouldn't play with a weapon that you don't know how use properly," Ulquiorra announced.

"Shut up Cuatro, let's have a duel, you and me, right now," Grimmjow pointed the sword at the other man's chest.

"You want to have a duel, in this human's shop, without our own swords? Even if you won, what would it prove?" With his hands in his pockets, he turned away from the cerulean haired man, and walked over to the counter where the girls were looking at jewelry.

"C'mon Nel-chan, it's almost lunch time," Orihime told the other girl.

"Oh, alright, I am getting a little hungry," Nel began to remove all the jewelry she'd been trying on and handed it back to the man behind the counter. In the meantime, Grimmjow placed the katana back on the shelf where he found it and strolled over to the exit.

The girls said goodbye to the owner and walked over to Grimmjow waiting by the exit. Ulquiorra stayed behind for a second, speaking quietly to the old man before nodding at him, and making his way over to the others.

* * *

While walking down the sidewalk, they discussed what they should eat for lunch, since the others weren't too familiar with different foods, Orihime suggested that they eat at an Udon shop she frequents at.

A couple of minutes went by, and when they reached the shop, the group entered, took their seats, and went over the menu. Orihime made suggestions to them on what the foods would taste like based on their flavors and ingredients. The waitress came and took their orders and they chatted about the days events so far while waiting for their food.

Soon the food arrived and as they began to eat Orihime noticed Nel and Grimmjow struggling to pick up the noodles with their chopsticks.

"Here, you hold them like this," Orihime held up the chopsticks in her hands to show them the proper way to grasp them, then she picked up a few noodles, and stuck them in her mouth.

Nel and Grimmjow shared a look before they attempted to do what she had just done, and after a few tries, they began to get the hang of it. Orihime glanced over at Ulquiorra and noticed that he wasn't having a problem, in fact, it appeared as if he'd been using chopsticks for years.

"Wow, Ulquiorra where did you learn to use chopsticks so well?" she questioned the man seated across from her in amazement.

"Urahara showed us, once." He replied with a stoic expression while Nel and Grimmjow choked on their noodles.

"Well, you're very good for only being shown one time," she gave the other two an encouraging smile. "Just keep practicing you'll get better."

* * *

As soon as they finished eating their lunch, they left the restaurant, and resumed their tour of the city. For a few hours, they window shopped, occasionally stopping in a store if it caught their interest, while Orihime answered any of their questions.

Eventually, the group arrived at the park where Nel appeared a few days ago with Grimmjow, and at one time Ulquiorra came with Yammy to investigate Ichigo. They placed their bags under a tree and wandered toward the middle of the park.

"Look Grimmy! That's the bridge I left you under while I ran to get Hime," Nel pointed to a bridge a short distance away from them.

"Oh, gee thanks," Grimmjow replied sarcastically and rolled his eyes at her.

"Hey, you're lucky I could even carry you through a garganta, you're heavy!" She stuck out her tongue at him in return and walked toward the swings. "Hime, what are these?" Nel glanced over her shoulder at the other girl following behind her.

"They're called swings, here watch." Orihime sat on one of the swings and demonstrated how it worked for Nel.

Instantly, Nel's face lit up and she bounced onto one beside the redhead. "Hime, that looks awesome!" She cried out as she began to copy the other girl's movements, but despite her effort she didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

For a moment, Nel stopped moving and pouted. All of a sudden, a mischievous smile crossed her face. "Grimmy! Push me!" she declared in a cheerful tone.

"What the hell do I look like, your personal attendant?" He growled at her.

"Please? C'mon, if you push me, I won't bug you for the rest of the day!" Nel whined.

"Fine, but you better keep that promise, or I'll kick your ass," he grumbled as he came up behind her and began pushing.

"Yay! Thanks Grimmy, now push me harder, I want to go higher!" she cried out enthusiastically.

At the same time, Orihime was still swinging back and forth spacing out while staring into the distance. When she heard Nel begin to giggle she glanced over at the other two and noticed that Grimmjow had a determined look in his eyes while pushing Nel almost high enough to go over the bar.

"Be careful, You don't want to go over that bar at the top," she leaned back as far as she could to achieve that feeling of weightlessness and through her hair she observed Ulquiorra standing alone on the bridge, gazing in their direction.

Orihime began to slow her pace, and when she reached a safe height from the ground, she jumped off her swing. She didn't even pause on her walk over to the bridge as she heard Nel call out about how cool she looked.

* * *

She halted a couple of feet behind Ulquiorra and took a look around the park to realize it was empty. "So, what do you think of it here?"

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "It's busy and loud with humans constantly moving about, also there's a lot of color." he returned his attention back to the other two people in their group. By this time, Grimmjow had sat in Orihime's unoccupied swing and they could hear him challenging Nel to a swinging match.

Orihime walked up to stand beside him and leaned on the bridge railing. She smiled and let out a soft giggle as she noticed Grimmjow and Nel. They had finally figured out how to swing and were racing to the top.

"Yes, it's completely different, but you'll get used to it. I believe that all of you should enjoy it as much as you can. Do whatever makes you happy, just in case you didn't get the chance to do it in your last life." She leaned forward on the railing a bit and a cold breeze ruffled her hair.

As she stood back up, and turned to face him with a gentle smile on her face, she tucked her hair in place behind her ear. "There has to be something that makes you happy?"

Ulquiorra gazed down at her for a second before he removed his hand from his pocket and brushed a few stray hairs away from her face. Instantly, a crimson flush spread across her face.

"Does it need to be some_thing_?" His gaze locked on hers and her smile faded, replaced by a confused frown. Before she could ask what he meant, they heard a loud shout, and his eyes grew wide in surprise as he tipped forward a bit.

Quickly, he regained his composure and shot a cool glare at Nel, who was now on his back with her arms and legs wrapped around him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Hime's face was so serious, I thought you were upsetting her," she declared smiling at him.

"Get off of me, you're heavy," he replied as he made no attempt to remove her.

Nel bounced off him and frowned. "You didn't need to be so rude about it."

"Hey!" Grimmjow called out a few yards down the path from them. "The sun's going to be setting soon, we should start heading home."

"He's right, and it's getting really cold," Orihime told them.

Grimmjow walked over to the tree they left their stuff under, picked up his bags, and waited for the others. After they had gathered up all their belongings, the group began to walk home, and another cold breeze whipped through causing Orihime to shiver.

"Nel-chan, aren't you cold? It's freezing out here." Orihime rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she continued to shiver.

"Nope," she chewed her lip for a couple of seconds. "Maybe it's because of the gigai?"

Orihime stared up at the sky. "Maybe, but if it gets any colder it'll probably snow," Suddenly, she felt a strange weight on her shoulders and realized Ulquiorra had thrown his jacket over her.

For this reason, her face turned slightly pink as she glanced over at him. "Thank you, but aren't you cold too?"

"Woman, if I was cold, I wouldn't have given it to you." He stared straight ahead with his hands in his pockets, not even bothering to look in her direction. She smiled softly and went back to conversing with her other two companions, while he remained silent the rest of the way home.


	10. The Howling Tempest

**A/N - **Okay, I know this chapter is super late and for that I apologize. This was my last week of classes for the semester, so I had to spend the time I usually designate for writing doing some last minute assignments and studying for final exams. Now that I'm on vacation for a while I should have more time to write. :) As usual, I want to thank everyone for reading and reviewing, especially to those who left suggestions, you're awesome.

* * *

That night, Orihime woke up and turned her head to squint at her alarm clock on the bedside table. The angry, red numbers 12:17 glared back at her. She closed her eyes and attempted to go back to sleep, but after a couple of minutes had passed and she was still awake, she decided to get a drink instead.

For this reason, she got out of bed and quietly made her way into the kitchen. While she was standing in front of the sink drinking her water, she tried to recall the strange dream that had awoken her.

_Hmm, I think I remember something about Nel-chan and I eating ice cream, topped with noodles? Oh well, it wasn't important anyway. _

At this point, Orihime yawned quietly and took it as a sign that she was ready to go back to sleep. She placed her empty cup into the sink, and made her way back to bed. As she was passing Nel's room, she peeked in quick, expecting to see the other girl sleeping soundly.

However, her futon was empty which startled Orihime wide awake, so she stepped into the room.

"Nel-chan?" She crept over to check the closet and came up with nothing.

Accordingly, she checked the bathroom next, but there was no sign of Nel anywhere. As it finally sunk in that she was all alone in the apartment, Orihime's blood ran cold. She turned around, and bolted over to the front door, threw on her shoes, and ran out into the night.

When she reached the steps that lead down from her apartment, she noticed it was beginning to snow. At that moment, her concern for Nel's safety was so overwhelming, that it never even crossed her mind to go back and grab a jacket.

As soon as she took the last step off the stairs, she paused for a moment to consider where the other girl could have gone.

_If I was Nel-chan, where would I go in the middle of the night? Maybe she thought of something she saw today and went back to look at it? _

With this in mind, she decided to retrace their steps from earlier, and rushed down the sidewalk, hoping that she would run into her friend along the way.

* * *

A little while later, after she had run through the quiet city softly calling Nel's name, she ended up at the park. She wandered over to the little bridge they had stood on that afternoon and scanned the surrounding area.

"Nel-chan!"

She paused for a moment, noting that the snow was falling much faster now, and began to rub her hands up and down her arms for warmth.

"Nel-chan!" She waited again, listening for a response.

"Such a noisy, little human," came a deep, scratchy voice from behind her.

Suddenly, Orihime spun around to see a giant, black hollow towering over her. At that instant, it stretched out one of its massive hands to grab her, and she called for Tsubaki.

"Koten Zanshun! I reject!" Tsubaki came flying out of her hairpin and dove straight toward the hollow's hand, effectively slicing it.

The hollow let a roar and pulled its hand back. "Stupid human! Did you think such a small cut would stop me?"

At that moment, Tsubaki was coming back around for another hit, but the hollow saw it out of the corner of its eye, and took an offensive position. Tsubaki noticed the change in its stance, and quickly altered his direction, thinking he could outsmart the hollow.

Before Orihime could react, the hollow backhanded her across the bridge, where she landed on the sidewalk, forcing Tsubaki to return to her pin.

The hollow let out an eerie laugh, "I told you that wouldn't stop me." It said as it began to cross the bridge over to where she was lying unconscious, when unexpectedly, a green flash of light enveloped it.

"Trash," came a voice from above where the hollow had been just a second ago. Ulquiorra stood there, with an indifferent expression on his face, and his hands in the pockets of his Espada uniform.

He took a few steps in Orihime's direction and noticed a small pool of blood gathering around her head. Without hesitation, he landed beside her, and scooped her up into his arms, as a light dust of snowflakes fell off her.

He glanced down at the freezing, bloody girl in his arms. "What were you doing out here, woman?" Not expecting an answer, he held onto her tightly and used sonido to return to Urahara's.

* * *

Meanwhile, the girl that Orihime was out looking for sat across from Grimmjow, in her new pink pajamas, having one of their usual late night 'meetings' in his room.

"See, Grimmy? Today worked out great, my plan was a complete success!" Nel declared with a proud smile on her face.

"You promised me this afternoon that you would leave me alone for the rest of the day, or did you forget?" He grumbled in return and ran a hand through his sleep tousled hair.

Her smile grew wider. "No, I remember, but now it's nighttime."

"You know, you're a real pain in my a-"

Suddenly, they heard a loud bang from the front of the shop. Grimmjow glanced at Nel, placed his finger over his lips, and jumped up. He rushed over to the bedroom door, grabbing his Zanpakutō along the way, and cracked it open just enough to peer out.

A few seconds passed and he saw no movement, so he quietly slid his door open, and crept through the living room. Upon reaching the now open front door, he took a couple of steps outside and glanced around.

At that moment, he noticed the small trail of blood starting at the entrance and leading back into the shop. He shut the door and proceeded to follow it through the living room and down the hall, where it seemed to turn into Ulquiorra's room.

Instantly, he flung the door open to a shocking sight, Ulquiorra was kneeling on the floor beside someone on his futon. At the sound of the door being opened, the other man turned to glare at him. That's when he noticed the crimson stain on the right side of Ulquiorra's white uniform.

Grimmjow took a couple of steps toward the dark haired man and realized it was Orihime lying there in her blue pajamas, covered in blood. "What the fuck happened?!"

"Keep your voice down." He turned back to the injured woman, gently lifted her head, and placed a towel underneath it.

"Grimmy? There's blood everywhere are you-" Nel stepped into the room and caught sight of Orihime. "Oh, Hime! What happened?"

Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes at the teal haired girl. "You're here again. Does she know that you've been sneaking out at night?"

Grimmjow interrupted. "I'm going to get Urahara, she looks like shit," with that he took off to wake the shopkeeper.

Nel sat down on the other side of the redhead and took her hand, "Hime, please wake up." She glanced up at the man seated across from her. "Her hands are like ice."

Ulquiorra continued to glare at her, "You didn't answer my question."

Nel opened her mouth to reply, but never got the chance as Urahara, Tessai, and Grimmjow entered the room.

"I heard our Orihime-chan's injured." Urahara said in a sleep filled voice.

"Please move aside," Tessai told him as Ulquiorra stood up and he took the younger man's place to kneel beside her. "Someone run and grab more blankets for her."

Grimmjow turned and left the room to do as the other man asked. A few seconds later, he returned with a stack of blankets and handed them to Tessai, who spread them over Orihime.

"How about we go into the living room to sort this whole thing out and give Tessai some space?" The blonde haired man suggested to the others as he turned and walked out the door.

Nel got up from her spot on the floor and followed behind Grimmjow as he exited the room. Ulquiorra stayed behind for a moment, his eyes fixated on the woman lying on his futon, before he turned and left the room.

* * *

He entered the living room to see the others already seated around the table. Suddenly, the front door flew open and Ichigo marched in, followed by Rukia, who shut the door behind them, and walked over to stand alongside of him.

The orange haired Shinigami glanced down at Nel, then he raised his eyes to glare at Ulquiorra. "Where the hell is Inoue, you bastard?!"

"Kurosaki-san, Kuchiki-san, please have a seat. Inoue-san will be fine, if you will give Ulquiorra a moment to explain what happened." Urahara interjected as he waved them over toward the table.

Ulquiorra walked over to take a seat beside Grimmjow, while Ichigo and Rukia made their way over and sat across from them.

Ichigo, with a hostile expression on his face, pointed at Ulquiorra. "I know you did something to her. I felt her reiatsu fade right before we saw your cero, and when we got to the park, there was a puddle of blood. Her blood, which is all over your jacket."

Ulquiorra closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, they locked onto the other man's. "You saw my cero because I destroyed a hollow that had attacked her."

"You didn't protect her? If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be here right now. What was she doing out there in the middle of the night anyway?" Ichigo demanded.

"By the time I got there she was already unconscious, and if you're so concerned with her safety, why weren't you there to save her?" His voice grew colder. "You're her savior after all, always running to her rescue."

"Savior? No, I'm her friend, and I care about the safety of all my friends, something you would never understand." He growled in return.

At that moment Tessai entered the room, glanced over at their new guests, and then looked at Urahara. "I've healed her as much as I'm able, but she hit her head pretty hard. All we can do now is wait for her to wake up."

Urahara nodded at the man in return, with that Tessai rotated around and left the room. The shopkeeper turned to the orange haired man with a large grin on his face.

"See Kurosaki-san? There's no reason to get all worked up, it's just as I said, Inoue-san will be fine. Now I think it's safe to say that we should all get some sleep." Urahara announced as he eased himself up.

Ichigo and Rukia stood, and headed for the front door, as he stepped out Ichigo turned, and gave one last glare toward Ulquiorra. "We'll be back tomorrow to check on Inoue," with that he closed the door behind them.

"Um, Urahara-san? Can I please stay here with Hime? I don't want to stay in her apartment all by myself," Nel asked as she stared down at the table.

Urahara gazed down at her with a soft smile on his face. "Of course you can Nel-chan, although, I don't think it'd be a good idea to move Orihime-chan tonight."

"Thank you, Urahara-san," Nel stood up and gave him a slight bow.

"And we don't want to wake the children, so I'll grab a couple of extra futons and you'll stay in Grimmjow's room." He turned and walked toward the doorway leading back to the bedrooms.

Grimmjow bolted up. "Hey, why do I get stuck with her?"

Urahara paused for a moment, and turned to face them with a thoughtful expression as he rubbed his chin.

"Well, since she is in Ulquiorra's room, it wouldn't be fair to kick him out, also it's not like it'll kill you to share your room with a beautiful, young woman for one night." With this comment, he gave them his usual smile and left the room.

"Tch, whatever, you better not bother me, cause I'm going to sleep," Grimmjow scowled down at her as she sat on the floor and chewed her lip with a distant look in her eyes. " Are you listening to me?"

Nel cocked her head to the side and stared back at him. "Huh? No, I was thinking about Hime. What was she doing out there? It's snowing outside, and she went out in her pajamas without a jacket or something? I don't get it." She shook her head and stood up.

At that moment, Ulquiorra stood up, drifted over to the doorway and stopped when he reached it to give her a sideways glance. "That woman was looking for someone," he answered her and continued back to his room.

Nel gave a Grimmjow a puzzled look and he shrugged his shoulders in return. "C'mon, let's get some sleep," he spun around and headed off to his own bedroom, not waiting for her as she got up and trailed slowly behind him.

* * *

Ulquiorra shut the door behind him, unzipped his bloody jacket, and folded it neatly to drop it in the hamper. Then, he walked over to his gigai and reentered it. He stretched for a moment, before he walked over to the new futon laid out on the floor for him, a couple of feet from Orihime.

He regarded her for a moment before he bent down, grabbed the futon, and slid it over alongside hers. Then, he sat down on it and continued to stare at her sleeping face.

"I always believed that if I couldn't see something, then it didn't exist." He lifted his eyes to gaze at the wall and frowned slightly.

"When you spoke to me about the heart, I didn't understand what you were saying at the time."

He let out a soft sigh, laid down and gave her a sideways glance. "But now I think I'm beginning to." With that, he rolled over, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

At the same time, down the hall in the other room, Grimmjow and Nel were lying on their futons having a quiet discussion.

"Why the hell are you laying so close to me?" He whispered hostilely.

"So we can talk of course," she whispered back.

"We should be sleeping not talking," he rolled over facing away from her and closed his eyes.

"Did you see how upset Ulquiorra looked?" She scooted closer to him. "I've never seen him show so much emotion, have you?"

"No, now shh," he replied without opening his eyes.

Nel frowned and shook him. "What do you think he meant when he said she was looking for someone? Who would she be looking for in the middle of the night?"

Grimmjow cracked one eye and glanced at her. "Obviously you, since you keep sneaking out at night to pester me."

Suddenly Nel sat up, grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back, and leaned closer to his face. "Me? It's my fault that Hime got hurt?"

"Shh! Keep it down!" He snapped.

She turned away from him to get up. "I have to go apologize to her."

Quickly, he reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. "She's unconscious, how are you going to apologize? Besides, Ulquiorra could've been wrong." He let go of her arm and rolled over again. "We'll figure it out when she wakes up, now shut up and go to sleep."

She nodded at him and laid back down. "You're right, thanks Grimmy." Although he couldn't see it, she smiled at him before she shut her eyes and went to sleep.


	11. The Verbal Warfare

**A/N - **Sorry this chapter took a little longer than I planned. I wrote it, edited it, was ready to publish it, and I didn't like the way it turned out, so I had to rewrite it a bit.

**Disclaimer - **I still don't own Bleach.

* * *

The following day, as the late afternoon sunlight streamed through the window of Ulquiorra's room onto Orihime's face, she slowly opened her eyes and sat up. The first thing she noticed was the pain in her head and when she reached up to feel the bandage there, confusion set in.

_What happened to me and where am I? _

She glanced around the room, noting that it almost looked familiar to her, although there was nothing in it to give her any clues as to where she was, so she got up from the futon she had been sleeping on. When she reached the bedroom door, she quietly opened it and took a peek out into the hall.

_Oh, I must be at Urahara's, but how did I even get here?_

With this in mind, she headed toward the living room to see if she could find someone to explain what had happened. Upon entering the room, she found it empty, so she stood there for a moment and listened for sounds of life.

Once she realized she was alone, she remembered the underground training area and figured maybe that's where everyone was. She turned around and headed in the direction of the trap door to further investigate.

As she began to descend the steps on the ladder, she could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance and knew that she had found at least a couple of the people that lived there.

* * *

Finally, when she reached the ground level, she followed the sounds around a giant rock to find Urahara and Nel talking while standing in front of a table full of machines. As she drew closer to the pair Nel spotted her first and rushed towards her.

"Hime! I'm so glad you're alright!" Nel reached the redhead and wrapped her up in one of her notorious bear hugs.

"Thanks Nel-chan, but I can't breathe," Orihime replied hoarsely to the other girl while she tried to wrestle out of her grip.

Nel let her go and took a step back to look her up and down. "How're you feeling?"

Orihime reached up to touch the bandage around her head. "My heads hurts a bit. What happened?"

Nel gave her a puzzling look. "You don't remember?"

"No, I vaguely remember being in the park, but other than that it's kind of fuzzy."

At that moment Grimmjow strolled over and stopped a few feet from her. "You should be thankful, you almost died if it wasn't for U-"

Before he could finish a bala landed beside him, barely missing him by inches. Standing above them on a rock was Ulquiorra, who shot a glare down at Grimmjow.

"I though we were in the middle of a duel? You'll never defeat me if you're constantly distracted." He called down to the blue haired man.

Grimmjow gazed up at the other man. "Shut up Cuatro, I'm just getting warmed up."

With that said, he jumped into the air, fired a cero back at the dark haired man, and they went back to fighting.

"Remember, I get to fight the winner next!" Nel called out after the two men as they moved off into the distance.

"Nel-chan, how come all of you are wearing your Espada uniforms? Where did you even get them from?" Orihime questioned her.

"Well, the boys kept complaining about how silly they looked without their gigais in normal clothes, so a couple of days ago I went back to Los Noches and grabbed our uniforms." She informed the redhead.

"Nel-chan I hope you were careful."

"Of course! I was super sneaky, besides no one was there anyway. Oh! That reminds me, I went back to your apartment this morning and grabbed you a change of clothes."

With the mention of changing her clothes, Orihime glanced down at herself and finally noticed that not only was she in her pajamas, but blood from her head wound had splattered all over them.

Urahara came over toward them and interrupted before Orihime could panic. "It's alright Inoue-san, a hollow attacked you, but thankfully Nel-chan found you in the park and brought you here." He glanced at Nel, giving her a look.

In return, she smiled and turned to Orihime. "Yup, that's what happened."

"Ah, hello again Kurosaki-san," Urahara gazed past Orihime to the orange haired Shinigami approaching them from behind her.

Orihime turned around and gave a small bow to Ichigo as he drew closer to them. "Hello Kurosaki-kun."

"Oi, Inoue are you feeling okay?" He asked as he stopped a couple of feet away from the three of them.

"I was just telling Nel-chan that I'm fine, except for a bit of a headache." She gave him an encouraging smile.

Ichigo cocked his head slightly to one side. "What happened last night? What were you doing in the park so late?"

She glanced down sheepishly. "I don't really remember. Oh wait! I think I was looking for something." She lifted her head with a confused expression on her face. "That's strange, what would I be looking for in the middle of the night."

At that comment Nel's face noticeably paled, but since she stood to the side of her, Orihime didn't seem to notice.

Ichigo glanced at Nel quick before returning his attention to Orihime. "It's alright Inoue, you don't need to push yourself so hard. Next time that happens, just get to safety as quickly as you can and focus on defending until help arrives."

Orihime put her head down and examined the ground. "Kurosaki-kun, do you know why I went to Hueco Mundo?" She didn't give him a chance to answer as she continued.

"I went there to protect everyone, when I arrived there Aizen showed me the Hōgyoku to prove to me that he trusted me. In that moment, I realized that there was something only I could do to help everyone, I could reject the Hōgyoku. I waited there patiently for the opportunity to arrive, but I never got the chance."

"You arrived with a rescue party to come save me, just like always. Do you ever think that maybe I can handle something on my own? That maybe I don't need you to always come save me?"

"Ino-"

She lifted her head to glare at him. "Even Kuchiki-san has more faith in me than you do, she took me to Soul Society and trained with me so I could improve my powers. I may not like battle or have the intent to kill, but that doesn't mean I'm as useless as you think."

With tears building in her eyes, she took off for the exit, not even pausing as he called out to her. Nel, with a sad expression on her face, gave him glance quick before she took off after the other girl.

* * *

"Great job asshole, you know nobody likes being told that they're weak." Grimmjow said as he appeared beside Urahara.

"Shut up hollow! Nobody was talking to you!" He shot back.

"You worry about that woman too much, she's much stronger than you think." Ulquiorra said as he materialized with his hands in his pockets a few feet in front of Ichigo.

He smirked at the other man. "How would you know?"

Ulquiorra gave him a cold glare in return. "She must not have told you, I was her keeper during her imprisonment in Los Noches. I saw the determination in her eyes that never wavered no matter what amount of hardship she went through."

The other man turned his face away and stared at the ground. "She's never told anyone about what really happened during her time there."

"That alone makes her strong, after everything she went through, and keeping it bottled up inside."

Ichigo turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. "You know I've always wondered, what was your relationship with her anyway? The way you two interacted with each other before your death wasn't normal under the circumstances."

Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes at the orange haired man. "That is none of your concern."

Ichigo took a step forward and raised his fist. "If it involves Inoue it is my concern!"

"All your doing is suffocating her, she'll never stand on her own if she knows you'll always be there to save her." Ulquiorra turned away from him and began to leave.

A suspicious half smile crossed Ichigo's lips and he called out after the dark haired man. "Oh I get it, I was right before, you were becoming more human."

"Think what you will," Ulquiorra called back without pausing as he continued walking toward the exit.

With this in mind, he shouted louder at the other man's retreating form. "You think me always saving her is hurting her? What about you? You're a hollow, there's no way she'll ever feel anything but pity for you! Whatever you feel towards her will only hurt her more in the end!"

He watched as Ulquiorra disappeared from his sight, then he turned back to the other two men who stood back quietly watching the entire time.

"Can you believe that guy?" Ichigo growled.

"Actually, he's right." Grimmjow replied as he stared at the exit.

"Of course you'd agree with him, you Espada have to stick together, since you're the only ones left." He snapped back.

Grimmjow shook his head and turned to face the angry man. "No, I've seen what she can do and also some of what she went through. She's old enough to make her own decisions, you should just leave it alone." He glanced at Urahara quick. "I'm going to check on the others," with that he took off for the exit.

Urahara let out a sigh. "Well, I guess that ends my research for the day." He turned around, headed back over to the table, and began to gather up the readings from the machines.

"Inoue's been spending too much time with those damn hollows lately." Ichigo mumbled to the other man.

"On the contrary Kurosaki-san, Inoue-san's been alone for so long and now she finally has others that depend on her. They don't treat her as weak or a nuisance, but as a necessity. They don't look at her as needing help because they need help from her." Urahara glanced up at the orange haired man."I think Inoue-san knows what best for her and everything will work out eventually."

Ichigo slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Fine, but if any of them do anything to hurt Inoue, especially Ulquiorra, they're dead." With that being said he turned and made his way over to the exit.

Urahara stood there and watched him climb the ladder as a huge grin spread across his face. "You won't have to worry about that, Ulquiorra hides his feelings from her too well."


End file.
